How to Build a Custom Gaming Computer [aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com]

How to Build a Custom Gaming Computer [aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com]

Building a custom gaming computer yourself may seem like a daunting task, but with a little guidance it can be done easily. There are several retail and internet stores available that you can custom configure a gaming PC for yourself in a step by step process. That's a great concept and the custom configuration tools these sites use are really easy to understand and use, but you are still paying retail for the parts and the labor to install them. Hence we have designed this basic article to help you through the process of building your own custom computer.

Step 1

Decide what you want to do with this new machine. Are you going to solely play multiple multiplayer games online or will this computer also be used for graphics design, multimedia projects like making and editing analog or high definition video. If you are also going to use this machine for watching DVD movies or online video downloads you will want to consider that as well.

For initial purposes of helping you understand the concept of building a custom computer for PC gaming, we will primarily stick to building a gaming rig and all the important concerns about hardware and software requirements. Many of the available titles of video games available today are very advanced software platforms that require powerful processors, high capacity high speed hard drives, tons of high speed memory and of course, ultra high tech video cards to process all the amazing graphics that these modern video games provide. To house and power all this high tech gear that the hardcore gamer demands, a computer case and high output power supply are needed. Special considerations are needed in selecting an operating system for your gaming rig as some of the latest games have special OS requirements, and the possibility of special drivers and Windows service packs or other Windows related updates. Of course, I haven't forgotten what is near and dear to my heart, hardcore gamer accessories. The average keyboard, mouse and basic headset just doesn't cut it if you consider yourself a serious gamer. So let's get started!

Step 2

So you have decided to build a new custom gaming computer! First things first. To follow our model of building a machine for modern online video games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield 2, World of Warcraft, etc we will start with a computer case. The most common computer cases are classified as ATX form factor. Most computer motherboards are designed for ATX form factor. This means that any manufacturer who builds a mother board in ATX form factor has designed it to fit in any other manufacturers ATX computer case.

The next thing to consider is physical size, expandability, and is a power supply included. I would consider getting a case without a power supply because today's video graphics cards, hard drives, cooling systems and physics processors and accelerators demand lots of wattage and current to operate properly. So pick out the coolest looking case in an ATX form factor, that is the right physical size for you and provides expansion slot or expansion port capability. Also consider how many spare bays you will have in front of the case for CD/DVD/blu ray drives and temperature control panels. So you have just purchased your new and cool computer case, let's go to the next step.

Step 3

So you purchased a new cool case now you need to power it correctly. First you need to decide the power requirements your new gaming rig will need. Also you need to determine if you want an internal power supply "PSU" or external. There are great internal power supplies that typically run up to 600 watts capability by Thermaltake, OCZ, and Enermax, but lately, many hardcore gamers are opting for the latest super high power external power supplies. They are doing this because even the best internal power supplies generate excess heat, and heat is the enemy of gamers worldwide. Many external power supplies range from 800 watts to well over 1000 watts in power. If your machine needs that much power you must go external. Your CPU and harddrive will thank you, and you will dominate the cyber battlefield. So if you go with an internal power supply, install it in your mack daddy game case now. Don't forget to ground yourself to the case chassis with an anti static wrist strap.

Step 4

Decide on a motherboard. Motherboards, also know as mobos, for short, are available from $ 50 to $ 500, depending on where you look. Why the large price difference? You get what you pay for. There are many technologies out there for mother board construction and performance. First of all, you can save some time by choosing a motherboard with a microprocessor included. These are usually called motherboard combos. Usually a good idea to choose a deal like this as the motherboard and processor are matched. This is very important. If you choose to buy the motherboard and main processor separately, you will have to ensure that each are compatible with each other. It is not likely that you will be able to insert a processor into an incompatible motherboard, much less that it will work, but you may damage the pins on the processor, the socket on the motherboard, or both. That would definitely be a bad thing. I don't think the place you bought it from would credit you any refund at all! If I could find a generic tool to help you figure out board and processor I would post it, but it is probably better to pick a motherboard manufacturer by model number, then get on the factory website to get the specific details on the type of processor that is compatible with the board. The latest and greatest motherboard and specifically processors are extremely expensive. I suggest opting for the 2nd generation of a new processor technology. This is of course less expensive, but ensures that you will not be a beta tester for someone else at your expense. My favorite motherboard manufacturers are Asus and Gigabyte. That is not to say there aren't any other or better motherboard manufacturers out there. These are just my picks. You will want a motherboard with overclocking ability and the video card and other expansion slots on the motherboard to be PCI Express or SLI plus formats. The expansion slot technology format of the motherboard will determine what other de vices you can put in this new computer. An example is that if you choose to put a dual or quad sli video card in this machine, it will only fit and work on a motherboard that has dual or quad sli expansion ports for a graphics card. So let's assume you picked out a great high end motherboard with a microprocessor. Follow the instructions and install the microprocessor in the motherboard into your new computer case. Don't forget to ground yourself to the case chassis with an anti static wrist strap.

Step 5

Pick out your memory, hard drives, and media drives. Corsair is my favorite computer memory manufacturer. OCZ is right there as well. They both make great high end memory at decent prices. As with everything else, your computer memory must be compatible with your motherboard. Click here for the crucial memory advisor tool, which will help you choose the correct memory to match your motherboard. Not all memory is created equal. The size of memory is usually the first and sometime the only thing that gamers look at when adding new memory to their rig. Quality of design and construction is very important, but hyperthreading and channels is critical and second in importance only to latency. If your memory has a low latency number, usually measured in milliseconds, your gaming experience will be much better that a guy whose rig had 12 gigs of ram, but running 3 times slower than your memory. By the way, how much ram can Windows Vista or Windows 7 manage anyway for one applicati on? For hardcore video gamers, high speed memory is good, slow is very, very bad. Pick your memory and install it in the motherboard correctly. Follow the instructions and wear an anti static wrist strap. For the latest deals, coupons and promotional codes on computer memory, check here.

Hard Drives have many options such as storage size, speed of the drive, technology of the drive, and redundancy. What is better, one hard drive or two? You decide. For serious video gamers I would recommend 2 hard drives. The main drive should be 100 to 150 gigabyte hard drive that spins at 7500 rpm or maybe the Raptor which spins at 10,000 rpm. Again faster is better for gamers. Put your OS on this drive along with your favorite video game software. The second hard drive should be formatted to be used solely for storage of your personal files, programs, music, videos, etc. You want your primary hard drive to perform flawlessly while you are hunting demons or attacking the enemy's flag in cyber space. You can find some great deals here on some of the best hard drives for your rig. Follow the instructions and install your drive or drives correctly. Use an anti-static wriststrap!

Media drives have many options that are driven by your preferences. I prefer one CD drive and 1 CD/DVD/BLU-Ray RW Combo drive. It is always a good idea to have two media drives. Blu Ray RW drives are still expensive, so why not add two CD/DVD RW drives. Look for a quality brand name, and speed, speed, speed. Some online video games still require that you have their program disk in one of the drives for the game to run. Whether or not your favorite multiplayer game requires this, you want these drives to be fast. Check the speed and sampling rates of these drives. Remember that RW drives usually write slower than the read speeds of the drive. Pick your media drives, read the instructions, install them in the computer gaming case you just purchased, and you are ready for the next step.

Step 6

Pick out the best compatible video card you can afford. You need to attempt to future proof your gaming rig, for some time anyway, as video card technology has changed rapidly for the past few years. You will also want to consider an Ageia Physx graphics accelerator card if your mobo can handle it. I recommend Nvidia or Radeon. A graphics card with a ultra fast gpu speed, overclocking capability and at least 1 gigabyte of graphics memory is a must have. Do not skimp on your video card. This piece of equipment is extremely important to your gaming experience and performance online. Make sure this card has the latest and multiple video output connections like one or more HDMI outputs. This assumes that your new flat panel computer monitor or monitors have HDMI inputs. They should. Pick out a deal on a video card from our catalog, install it and go to the next step.

Step 7

Consider the cooling requirements of your gaming case. You should add multiple case fans, if they were not included in your case already. Computer case typically pull cool air in from the front of the case and exhaust the warm air out the back of the case. If you new case did not come with any fans, purchase a few 120mm fans and 60mm or 80mm fans. Your case is probably predrilled for fans in front and back. Determine the size of fans that your gaming computer case is predrilled for and install them.

CPU cooling is extremely important, The faster our processors get, the hotter they get. You can add an aftermarket CPU cooling fan to your microprocessor. Some processors come with a clamp on CPU cooler, but I usually throw them away. I prefer Thermaltake, OCZ, and Cooler Master for CPU coolers. These devices are high tech, fairly expensive but are critical to keeping that $ 300 or $ 1000 processor you just purchased from burning up. Pick out a CPU cooler, read the instructions, put on a good anti static wristband and install the CPU cooler. If you do not read the CPU cooler instructions, you may destroy everything you just bought.

Liquid cooling systems have come down slightly in price and have become more popular. Liquid cooling systems have the ability to keep the computer CPU, hard drives, and the internal computer case temperature down as they are more efficient than simple airflow over the surfaces. You make the decision on whether to use liquid cooling systems in your new gaming rig. I prefer air cooling and I usually keep my home office and server rooms at 69 degrees anyway.

Step 8

Connect all power cables on the internal side of the gaming case and get ready to power it up. Here is the part that I can't give help on as every motherboard has different utilities that need to be installed before the OS installation. You must study the software installation guide that came with your motherboard and then install the Windows or Linux operating system.

There are many drivers that need to be installed for the motherboard and all the other devices like the video card, the hard drives, media drives, etc. Many times the order that the drivers are installed in is important. Again, refer to all the documentation you received to do this properly. It is not packing material! You should have a working monster gaming rig now. All you need now are the cool accessories.

Accessories

Surround sound headsets, gaming keyboards and mice are all required accessories for the hardcore gamer. These devices are not designed or built like the typical computer keyboard or mouse. Gaming gear and accessories are designed for serious gaming. They are designed to be better, faster and stronger, just like the bionic man. Pick out your new gamer gear, plug them in, install the drivers and start fragging.

Recommend How to Build a Custom Gaming Computer Issues

Question by Todd: Is it better to build a computer yourself or buy a custom computer? I was looking at parts on Newegg, and I discovered that I could buy a pre-built custom computer for nearly the same price at cyberpowerpc and ibuypower. Which would you choose, and why? Best answer for Is it better to build a computer yourself or buy a custom computer?:

Answer by questin:P
Building it yourself is still better, unless the offer is good. Those pre-built systems on newegg give you a good CPU and GPU setup, but they give you terrible hard drives, Motherboards, RAM, Etc. By building it yourself you dont have to waste time evaluating every part on every build. You get EXACTLY what you want. If you ever need help on parts or how to build feel free to ask me.

Answer by Jak
If you know how to build and some history of computers then go build yourself. It gives you full control and you know whats happening inside. When you see your rig is up and running its a builders pride thing.

Answer by L. E. Gant
It depends on what knowledge you bring to the process, and what you want to do with the computer afterwards. As a rule, assembled computers are not that much more expensive than the parts that go into them, except for very high-end machines. So, for a cheap pre-assembled one, it will cost (based on prices here) maybe $ 400, with another $ 400 for the operating system. Building an exactly equivalent one will cost about $ 350, and the software. Not much of a difference, so it's worth just taking the pre-built one, even if I add a couple of hundred for special features, like more RAM or a bigger hard drive. However, a high spec prebuilt one will cost around $ 4000, with software already loaded. To build an equivalent would cost me about $ 2500 in parts - a significant difference. If I were putting together a games machine, I know I'd build it myself - difference is more than $ 3000!

Answer by An American
Good question, both the cyberpower and ibuypower systems are very good. They use off the shelf parts and are completely upgradeable and the BIOS's are not locked like the factory made (Dell, HP, Gateway etc) PC's are. BUT.....you can still save money and build a much more powerful system if you buy the parts and assemble the system yourself. newegg also has combo deals that will save you even more money when buying parts and building your system yourself. I say build it yourself if you have the least bit of technical knowledge. There are plenty of how to videos on youtube on building computers. You will enjoy the experience of building your own system. Have fun

Answer by Justin ...
Building the computer your self is good, enjoyable. But risky if u dont know what you are doing, on jumper cable in the wrong hole can fry your system... Trust me, that sucks.

Answer by ord1226
I go into those sites you listed and review the parts they list on their computers. Now for a matter of fact I never have ever used an Intel CPU, ever. I refuse to pay the prices. There are so many youtube demonstrations how to build a computer, that anyone one can do it, well almost anyone. Purchase with onboard video and upgrade later, also maybe don't pay so much for the best ever CPU. But never scrimp on the Motherboard, never. Make sure you are getting esata or USB 3.0. Antec cases are just wonderful AMD CPU's are less expensive than Intel and so are AMD motherboards Use PSU calculator for future growth Don't buy a Blu-Ray writer, get a DVD and maybe a Bly-Ray ROM for video Blu-Ray's will come down in price with better performance. Check you peripherals if they are compatible with windows 7 32 or 64 bit. I am a gamer but I go for standard RAM Lots of SATA slots, 6 or more. I guess that does it for me.+ I purchased my first parts from Tiger Direct and really didn't know what I was doing and blew my motherboard and CPU. No questions asked and I got the parts replaced. I learned my lessons about static. I buy all my parts, now, from Newegg.com. I should have watched those youtube demonstrations. It was like building a model plane without looking at the instructions. I read the instructions and manuals now.

Answer by Jim
>If you build it, you will learn a lot you wouldn't know if you bought it. For the same price, I would build it myself and just get the experience. Once you do this, you can repair your own computer rather than relying on someone else for a price.

Answer by Mitchell Dee
You save around $ 100-$ 150 going through newegg and various sites just because of the assembly fee and all the other fees. You can also find great combo deals that saves you even more. But if you can't be bothered to build it in your spare time then by all means go through ibuypower.com , don't go through cyberpowerpc.com , they have a lower rating at ressellerratings.com

Answer by Victor Sodhouse
BUILD ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!

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