Discussion PC Building Rules of Thumb

IDProG

Distinguished
I have some personal rules of thumb of PC building for gaming:
1. CPU price < GPU price
2. Motherboard price < CPU price
3. Monitor price < GPU price (except HDR)

Do you know/have more rules of thumb for PC building for gaming? Let me know.
 
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Nice Nicer

Commendable
May 24, 2021
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Power supply wattage should be about 100 watts above total maximum usage to extend it´s life span a bit and be on the safe side when it comes to upgrades.
 
Always use a ssd of some sort for the C drive.
If your gaming is multiplayer, favor a cpu with many threads.
If your games are cpu centric, look first to the cpu single thread performance.
If your games are fast action or high resolution, favor stronger graphics cards.
Over provision your psu.
DO NOT buy a cheap psu; for quality, look to a psu with at least a 7 year warranty.
Do not try to "future proof"; buy what you expect to need for perhaps 2 years out.
One exception may be the monitor.
Buy the best monitor that your wallet and conscience will permit.
Monitors are relevant for quite a long time.
 
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kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
I have some personal rules of thumb of PC building for gaming:
1. CPU price < GPU price
2. Motherboard price < CPU price
3. Monitor price < GPU price (except HDR)

Do you know/have more rules of thumb for PC building for gaming? Let me know.
This was the formula I came up with --

You can use the CPU cost as "X"

GPU is probably 2X for a gaming build, 1-2X for a Productivity/Designer build, 3X for a top end gaming
Motherboard about 1/2X
Memory 1/2X
SSD/HDD 1/2X for gaming, 1-2X for a Designer build
Case 1/3X
Cooling 1/3X
Power 1/3X
The OS is a fixed $100.

X = total / 5.5
 
One of my rules is to never allow price of one component to exceed price of the sum of other parts. That can easily happen with GPU prices nowadays. Would end up with mediocre performance because CPU and memory wouldn't be able to follow GPU.
Other one is to never skimp on PSU. everything depends on PSU.
 

IDProG

Distinguished
Buy the best monitor that your wallet and conscience will permit.
Monitors are relevant for quite a long time.
I agree with this. I want to buy a 4K 120Hz HDR monitor as an upgrade to my current 27G2 monitor, but it is damn expensive, so I guess I will just stay with my current monitor until I get more salary or something.

This was the formula I came up with --

You can use the CPU cost as "X"

GPU is probably 2X for a gaming build, 1-2X for a Productivity/Designer build, 3X for a top end gaming
Motherboard about 1/2X
Memory 1/2X
SSD/HDD 1/2X for gaming, 1-2X for a Designer build
Case 1/3X
Cooling 1/3X
Power 1/3X
The OS is a fixed $100.

X = total / 5.5
I remember that "GPU is best if it's twice as expensive as the CPU" now.

One of my rules is to never allow price of one component to exceed price of the sum of other parts. That can easily happen with GPU prices nowadays. Would end up with mediocre performance because CPU and memory wouldn't be able to follow GPU.
Other one is to never skimp on PSU. everything depends on PSU.
I remember that GPU price < 1/2 the entire build now.