PC Gaming Hardware/PC Hardware in general for noobs?

[MeanBob]

Excuse me if I sound dumb, but I just thought I'd ask since there's a lot of tech-heads here

I always wanted a badass PC for gaming and whatever and, honestly, I know jack ****. Maybe just a very small gist, but that's it.

One of these days, yeah, I will want to build my own custom gaming PC physically, but for now, I'm not an expert at all. I'm looking at custom gaming PCs from sites like iBuyPower and AVADirect to just pick out the components themselves for a PC to be, obviously, built and ready. Problem is that all these hardware components are throwing me off! ! There's so much to know like numbers, DDR, motherboards, processors, CPU, types of graphics cards, etc.

Like I said, I'm a complete utter noob at this and I don't know where to start. I've had a few suggestions from a couple of friends, but they don't go in-depth with what I want to know at all. All I get is "make sure to get a good one and know the difference between brands..get the best of the best!"

I wanna be able to play the games of today!

How did you guys learn about computer hardware? Any sites you can recommend to read up on?

[Beanovsky Durst]

Not dumb at all sir, we all have to start somewhere.

First, if you want to properly run games of today as you put it, you need to check their system requierments to plan which components your PC will need.
Next should be your budget. Building a gaming rig isn't exactly cheap but you can manage to find good value for your money.
If you're going to ensemble the parts yourself, you should learn the basics of building custom PCs, to avoid making a mistake that could potentally ruin all your investment.

Google and common sense can help you greatly.

I'm talking here from experience, I was pretty much in the same spot as you last year. I managed to build a rig that runs actual games at high gfx settings, with a tight budget and I'm quite happy with it.

I'm no expert but if you need any help I'll be glad to assist you, and I'm sure there are folks around here that also can help you.

[MeanBob]

First, if you want to properly run games of today as you put it, you need to check their system requierments to plan which components your PC will need.
Next should be your budget. Building a gaming rig isn't exactly cheap but you can manage to find good value for your money.

To be honest, I'm not exactly worried about my budget for now at least. I just need to find out how to understand all the shenanigans PC hardware throws at me x_x...

If you're going to ensemble the parts yourself, you should learn the basics of building custom PCs, to avoid making a mistake that could potentally ruin all your investment.

Nah, building one in my stage seems a bit too much for me lol. That's why I was looking at sites where they build it for you and just ship it

Google and common sense can help you greatly.

Not gonna lie, I tried, but I honestly don't even know where to start!!!

I really appreciate your help and am willing to take a look at what you may recommend for me to look at to get myself a basic knowledge of what to look for and/or look at when it comes to selecting components and such. It really looks like heavy duty stuff!

[Beanovsky Durst]

You should start by knowing what setup would perform the best for your interests.
What games do you want to play on your PC? Then check their system requierments to build your own setup.

Since you want newer games running, you should at least try to consider three things: Graphics card, processor and RAM. These will determine how well the games will perform on your computer. They need to be selected considering which will be your operating system.

I would recommend that if you're going for an actual setup it should be a Windows 7 64bit OS, so you'll need a multicore processor and at least 2GB of RAM. Your graphics card should be of 512MB minimum and support DirectX 9/10 features.

Now which brands you should use will be a personal choice. Check out the features of each component in their brand's website; check out reviews of the products, all the info that can help you to make a decision.

For example, I wanted a PC to play Resident Evil 5, so I started by checking the system requierments for it:

Spoiler:

show spoiler

Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.0 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Memory: 1 Gb
Hard Drive: 8 Gb free
Video Memory: 256 Mb
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 6800 / ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c
Keyboard
Mouse
DVD Rom Drive

Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista/7
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.8 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 920 @ 2.8 GHz
Memory: 2 Gb
Hard Drive: 8 Gb free
Video Memory: 512 Mb
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 9800 / ATI Radeon HD 4800
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 10
Keyboard
Mouse
DVD Rom Drive

So based on that I went and investigated which components could fit my budget and still deliver a good performance. I ended buying these parts:

- Intel Pentium Dual Core E5400 @ 2.7ghz
- Kingston RAM 2GB
- nVidia GeForce GT240 1GB

With this I can succesfully run RE5 on Windows 7 (64bit) with no slowdowns at high settings, since I'm between the minimum and recommended system requierments.

Obviously there are some other very important things to consider while building a PC like the motherboard, HDD, power supply, cooling, sound cards etc. But these can be put in second place, we're just starting to get an idea of what you want for your PC.

Sorry for my crap english, and I hope this bit of info helps you.

[Zombie Fred]

If you like to start learning from somewhere then youtube would be great to see how people do their own rigs from scratch and what complications there can be. Once you're comfortable with building a computer, and have successfully done so, there are many advance stuff you can learn such as overclocking and little software tweaks for your OS (operating system) to manipulate your hardware and specs

When you do want to build a new PC, you need to remember with the motherboard on what CPU (Processor), GPU (Graphics card), and RAM speed it allows because all of them are different requirements and you can easily buy something that's not right for that motherboard. Always check the specifications on the motherboard when looking. It will have a list (it will be understandable for the basic things you'd like to do) on what parts it is compatible with.

Also budget is another thing to consider. If you like to have a computer that is future proof for quite some time then you’re looking at $800 plus. My new build cost me just over a total of £1000, because everything I’ve intended is to last me for many years without upgrading (outside getting an SSD drive – solid state drive – I will buy at the end of the year when there’s better optimization) and ready for Direct X 11 compatibilities. But my previous build, 3 years ago, had only cost me about £700 (outside monitor and sound) and I can run Direct X 10 stuff fine on most games at 50-60fps, with some around 30 (Metro for example) with a high multiplication of AA (Anti-Aliasing) to make the game look smooth without any jaggies (little pixels you can notice when moving) around at a 1920x1200 resolution.

Here’s a great site that can go through, especially since in you’re in America and want to know the best sites and deals to get. Neogaf’s PC thread will make you go a long way for this area

Link
If you like any help or got any questions to just message me and I’ll be happy to help 

[Alexia_Ashford]

Also budget is another thing to consider.

[MeanBob]

Sorry for the late response, but I guess what Beanovsky Durst is trying to say is that just look at what you need for that specific game, look at graphics card, processor and RAM for the time being?

I still got ways to go if I want a future-proof PC then, eh?

For now, like I said, I wanna hardware for now rather than building because building a rig myself at my stage right now feels a bit much x_x

[Beanovsky Durst]

Sorry for the late response, but I guess what Beanovsky Durst is trying to say is that just look at what you need for that specific game, look at graphics card, processor and RAM for the time being?

I still got ways to go if I want a future-proof PC then, eh?

For now, like I said, I wanna hardware for now rather than building because building a rig myself at my stage right now feels a bit much x_x

Exactly, that's what I meant. If you want a future-proof PC, then you should go above the the common recommended system requierments...

[Branden_Lucero]

the most important thing in reality is budget. cause no offense, but an idiot can go and THINK that they can get their hands on the best of anything but find out that they're spending more for a performance in the end isn't great compared to researching, finding sales, and ultimate end up with the best compatible PC in both software and hardware.

[MeanBob]

I actually go around to going back and forth between the posts here and a bit of help from a friend, I understand components for the most part! Although I'm a noob still, I wanna thank Beanovsky Durst for the bit of help he's given me when it comes to looking at games and making sure what I need for games is in my head now lol. Also, thanks to Zombie Fred as well for explaining a few things here and there for me.

Now to determine power supply..

[Member_of_STARS]

Do. Not. Build. Your. Own. PC. if you don't have an understanding about the hardware. It's not something elitist, but it is rather complex.

I suggest you visit a tech forum, post your needs and your budget and ask for people to compile you a parts list. You seem like a reasonable person and they will gladly help you out.