First time gaming computer build

[Kuhar7]

I am looking at building a gaming computer. I want a good computer that will play majority of games at high to ultra settings.

I am not really sure where to start.
can you guys give me a few ideas on what i would be looking at hardware and price wise.

Thanks

 

[TheticComet]

U should start with a processor,then motherboard and then install sufficient amount of RAM 8 GB or 16 GB will do then go for graphics card
I'd recommend GTX970,if u are looking for something higher go for 980ti or GTX 970 SLI,then choose SSD or HDDs which have enough space for your games...let's say 120 GB SSD and 1 TB,then choose a PSU enough to run all your components...a 600 or 650W should do fine,then get a decent case (I'm not good with cases,u choose) and sufficient case fans to keep your components from over heating and that's it you are done
EDIT: an i5 or an i7 processor should do fine for gaming

 

[KarlKarrlander]

Hey there,

It's great that you've decided to build your own gaming rig! Frankly, building my first computer many years ago was one of the most exhilarating experiences I've ever been through. Not that it was exciting and action-filled, but in a way that makes you feel proud when you've completed the build. You get this feeling of accomplishment that cannot really be described.

With that said, I still build computers all the time today (now through my company) and I still love doing it. So just building your desktop for the feeling of accomplishment alone is worth it. So I'm glad that you decided to do this, which leads me to ask you one question before I can give you a a few suggestions:

What is your budget? Do you have one?

A good desktop that can run ALL the games today on ultra at 1080p can be built for roughly $1300, maybe more maybe less depending on the prices, sales and where you live!

 

[Kuhar7]

ok so with the motherboard how do i find out if it will be compatible with the graphics card, ram, and all the other stuff?

 

[Kuhar7]

Hey there,

It's great that you've decided to build your own gaming rig! Frankly, building my first computer many years ago was one of the most exhilarating experiences I've ever been through. Not that it was exciting and action-filled, but in a way that makes you feel proud when you've completed the build. You get this feeling of accomplishment that cannot really be described.

With that said, I still build computers all the time today (now through my company) and I still love doing it. So just building your desktop for the feeling of accomplishment alone is worth it. So I'm glad that you decided to do this, which leads me to ask you one question before I can give you a a few suggestions:

What is your budget? Do you have one?

A good desktop that can run ALL the games today on ultra at 1080p can be built for roughly $1300, maybe more maybe less depending on the prices, sales and where you live!

i am probably going to have a limit of $1000 AUD, i am happy to go cheaper on the case and whatnot, to keep the price down.

 

[king3pj]

For that budget in AUD I would go with something like this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($275.00 @ Umart)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ CPL Online)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card ($319.00 @ CPL Online)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($79.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $993.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 01:25 AEST+1000

 

[Kuhar7]

For that budget in AUD I would go with something like this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($275.00 @ Umart)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ CPL Online)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card ($319.00 @ CPL Online)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($79.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $993.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 01:25 AEST+1000

Looks pretty decent, i was thinking of getting a GTX970 though.
is there anyway that a i7 would be better.
what about more ram? would that help gaming performance?

 

[king3pj]

For that budget in AUD I would go with something like this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($275.00 @ Umart)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ CPL Online)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card ($319.00 @ CPL Online)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($79.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $993.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 01:25 AEST+1000

Looks pretty decent, i was thinking of getting a GTX970 though.
is there anyway that a i7 would be better.
what about more ram? would that help gaming performance?

All 3 of those things you just asked about would be improvements to the build I suggested. It just isn't going to be possible to go with an i7, 970, and 16GB of RAM while staying under $1000 AUD though.

If you can only pick one of those improvements, the 970 would make the biggest difference. There won't be a big difference between an i5 and an i7 in most games. Having 16GB of RAM is nice. I recently upgraded my PC from 8GB to 16GB just beacuse it was on sale. I can tell you that before that upgrade I never came across a single game that was held back by my 8GB of RAM though.

If you can stretch your budget a bit I would add a 970 and a small SSD to install Windows on. These two upgrades will make your build noticeably faster than the one I previously recommended. I would go with this instead of an i7 and 16GB of RAM. If you can afford to add that stuff on top go for it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($275.00 @ Umart)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.00 @ Centre Com)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ CPL Online)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($474.00 @ PLE Computers)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($79.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $1207.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 02:04 AEST+1000

 

[TheticComet]

For that budget in AUD I would go with something like this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($275.00 @ Umart)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ CPL Online)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card ($319.00 @ CPL Online)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($79.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $993.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 01:25 AEST+1000

Looks pretty decent, i was thinking of getting a GTX970 though.
is there anyway that a i7 would be better.
what about more ram? would that help gaming performance?

GTX 970: http://www.ebay.in/itm/271790317179?aff_source=Sok-Goog&ul_ref=http%253A%252F%252Frover.ebay.com%252Frover%252F1%252F4686-213761-11394-217%252F2%253F%253F%253D%2526mpre%253Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.ebay.in%252Fitm%252F271790317179%253Faff_source%253DSok-Goog%2526site%253DPartnership_PLA%2526srcrot%253D4686-213761-11394-217%2526rvr_id%253D1015956776090

RAM will definitely have a huge impact on gaming but for now,8GB should do fine,16 GB RAM can be used for the future,so I recommend getting 16 GB

 

[KarlKarrlander]

Go with any of the options given to you above, they are all worth the buck!

 

[Kuhar7]

For that budget in AUD I would go with something like this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($275.00 @ Umart)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ CPL Online)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card ($319.00 @ CPL Online)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($79.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $993.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 01:25 AEST+1000

Looks pretty decent, i was thinking of getting a GTX970 though.
is there anyway that a i7 would be better.
what about more ram? would that help gaming performance?

All 3 of those things you just asked about would be improvements to the build I suggested. It just isn't going to be possible to go with an i7, 970, and 16GB of RAM while staying under $1000 AUD though.

If you can only pick one of those improvements, the 970 would make the biggest difference. There won't be a big difference between an i5 and an i7 in most games. Having 16GB of RAM is nice. I recently upgraded my PC from 8GB to 16GB just beacuse it was on sale. I can tell you that before that upgrade I never came across a single game that was held back by my 8GB of RAM though.

If you can stretch your budget a bit I would add a 970 and a small SSD to install Windows on. These two upgrades will make your build noticeably faster than the one I previously recommended. I would go with this instead of an i7 and 16GB of RAM. If you can afford to add that stuff on top go for it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($275.00 @ Umart)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.00 @ Centre Com)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ CPL Online)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($474.00 @ PLE Computers)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($79.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $1207.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-18 02:04 AEST+1000

So what about what type of ram I would use, I've seen a couple of different types eg, DDR3 and DDR4. is there much difference between the two for gaming?

Ok, another thing I wanted to ask was about upgrading hardware.

Motherboards are probably the thing I know the least about.

For example with this motherboard would it be compatible with new hardware a few years from now?

eg. Upgrading CPU, GPU, ram, HDD, SDD?

thanks

 

[king3pj]

If you go with the build I suggested you would have to use DDR4 RAM. That is what is compatible with the Skylake CPU and motherboard I picked. If you went with an older Intel Haswell CPU you would have to choose a different motherboard and DDR3 RAM.

In a few years you would definitely be able to upgrade your GPU, HDD, and SSD on the current motherboard. The RAM is upgrade-able to higher quantities of DDR4 RAM but it will not be compatible with DDR5 or whatever comes next. We just started using DDR4 though so that won't happen for a long time.

The motherboard I selected supports up to 32GB of RAM but it only has 2 RAM slots. This means that if you wanted to upgrade your RAM you would have to buy two 8GB or 16GB sticks of DDR4 RAM and replace the current 4GB sticks instead of adding on to what you already have.

The CPU is a little tougher. The i5-6500 I picked is good enough to last you several years. By the time you needed to upgrade it Intel will almost certainly have switched motherboard sockets.

You could upgrade to a current, stronger Skylake CPU like the i7-6700k but you won't be able to upgrade to Intel's new CPU in 5 years without changing motherboards.