Gaming PC
When choosing the right gaming PC Desktop for you, there are a variety of different factors based on the games you want to play, how beautiful you want them to look, and the most importantly; how much you are willing to spend. We’re going to be detailing priced builds from a high end $5000 rig all the way down to a budget $300 build, so you should be able to find the best gaming PC for you.
If you’re new to the PC building scene you may not know the ins and outs of the specific terminology, or what components are compatible with what. To help, we’ll be detailing some key tips and tricks, along with breaking down some of the PC jargon to help ensure your building journey is as smooth as possible.
Unfortunately, due to various factors, the prices of the hardware listed fluctuate daily. We aim to update all of our builds as much as we can to ensure they are as close to the specified build price as possible.
However, before you get into that, here are some things to consider when searching for your dream machine.
Things To Consider
Know Your Budget
How much are you willing to spend? Our builds are composed of expensive, high-end gaming powerhouses to budget gaming rigs so you should be able to pick a price point and see if it meets your requirements.
If you are on a strict budget, take a look at the $300 and $400 gaming PCs and see if they will be able to run the games you want to play. If not, gradually increase your budget.
Know Your Needs
Do you intend to just play MOBAs? Or are you interested in modern, AAA titles? If it’s the latter, you’ll definitely want one of the more expensive gaming PC builds. However, if you’re into indie games and other light games, the cheaper ones should do just as fine.
What Are Your Future Plans?
Planning is also important if you want to invest only in the best cheap gaming PC. As you will see, even our budget builds already have decent processors but sadly, they don’t have a decent graphics cards. So, if you’re looking to game well into the future, a latest release graphics card could be the smart choice.
Having a good idea of which parts you can upgrade is a good way for you to get the most from your initial investment. If you’re not sure what parts you might be interested in upgrading to, check out the latter sections of all our builds where we detail some options to make them more powerful.
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Buying Guides
Hands on Reviews
FAQs
How to choose a power supply
There are a lot of confusing terms when it comes to buying the right power supply for your PC; What wattage do I need? What is an efficiency rating? What do bronze, silver and gold ratings mean? So on and so forth. Without over complicating this, we recommend almost disregarding any power supply that doesn’t have a good efficiency rating. This is because if you choose an extremely cheap supply that doesn’t have that good efficiency rating, it is a lot more likely to fail, leaving you needing to purchase another just to make your PC come alive.
Bronze, silver, and gold ratings are an added extra that gives you better efficiencies at different loads, with bronze being the worst and gold is the best. When we think about wattage, things get a little more convoluted, you need to look at all the other components and almost calculate the combined power required.
The general rule is to look at how much wattage is required from your graphics card and go from there. You’re looking at between 500w and 650w needed for most builds, but using lower/higher-powered components will sway this, so get your calculator out and start adding.
How to choose compatible CPUs and Motherboards
To ensure you’re choosing a CPU that’s compatible with your motherboard, you need to first choose which brand of CPU you’re going for; AMD or Intel as all motherboards support one brand and not the other. Once that’s been done, choose the processor. Let’s say you’re looking at an AMD Ryzen 5 3600, this is a 3rd generation Ryzen CPU so you’re going to have to choose a motherboard that supports that. It is a very common mistake choosing a motherboard that doesn’t support your generation, so check that product description to make sure it does.
Building Tips
Use Anti-static Equipment
Electrical components are fragile at the best of times so taking care when building is essential. However, what many don’t consider is the effect static electricity can have. If a static discharge occurs, it can damage your components beyond repair, which then means a whole lot of wasted money.
You can avoid any potential component damage in a couple of ways, with the most common being; using an anti-static mat for your components and wearing an anti-static wristband when assembling.
Prepare your toolkit in advance
You’re going to want to get your tools ready because you don’t want to start to assemble your rig and not be able to due to not having the correct equipment. There aren’t masses of tools you need to successfully assemble a PC but what is essential, is a screwdriver with multiple bits. There are a few screws that are needed to secure both the components and assembling the case itself. These can usually be fitted using the same Phillips bit, with the most common being #2. However, make sure you have #1 and #3 just in case.
How To's, FAQs & News
- By Mike Tomlinson
- May 26, 2021