Wanna get started with PC gaming. Where do I start?

[Guest]

To clarify, I've been a PC gamer for about a year now I think but I've been playing on my shitty laptop all this time, a laptop that I'm lucky it doesn't blue screen on start up and that takes aaaaaaaaaaages to load up. Furthermore, the only way I can even think of playing games with it is to lower the settings to absolute shit levels and even then the stutter is bad.

So yeah, I wanna make the big step forward and get myself a serious gaming rig. I have the money (I have exactly a 1000 euros budget) but I don't wanna jump the gun. I've been looking for building guides on YT and by the looks of it building a gaming PC doesn't seem as difficult as I thought it was. I could mimic those guides, however I feel that's not gonna cut it.

 

What I'm looking for is advice. Really, all you think I should know. Suggestions for, say, sites, manuals, guides and so forth are very welcome too. What I want is not just knowing how to build a PC but to understand how it works, what each component does etc. so that I can know what I'm dealing with here. I know it sounds lazy for me to ask, I did look that stuff up but there's just so much to choose from I don't know what to pick, which are trustworthy and which say complete utter bollocks.

Can you help this rookie out? I will copy and paste this on the Steam forums as well since it's obviously a more suitable place to ask, but I'd still like input from you guys if you don't mind giving me some

[Dr. Doggo]

try this http://www.logicalincrements.com/

however it means you're gonna be ordering all the parts separately. I've got a pretty solid spec, and I saved a lot of money by building it myself.

Building a PC isn't hard. It's like Lego but fiddlier with a higher risk factor.

[Wolflich]

pcpartpicker.com has been a nice shortcut the last few times. I don't know that it's always 100% accurate but I make sure to read up on parts before I get them and so far it hasn't suggested anything incompatible. If you're outside the few regions it covers you might need to check prices and availability yourself though.

Once you get the parts, putting it together is really just a matter of reading the instructions they come with. I think the first time I built a pc some years ago I did attempt to follow a guide at first but didn't end up needing it because everything tended to explain itself.

[Zytan]

I'd advise going with an NVidia gpu to save on compatibility issues (seems a lot of my friends have no end of issues due to theirs) and a meaty AMD cpu save yourself a few hundred in comparison to an equally powerful intel cpu (buy a cooler for it, the stock fans are noisy as heck).  You'll have something reliable and respectable without paying through the roof.

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

I heard somewhere that some thrift stores have big buckets of old PC parts, maybe you could try starting with that.

[Wolflich]

I'd advise going with an NVidia gpu to save on compatibility issues (seems a lot of my friends have no end of issues due to theirs) and a meaty AMD cpu save yourself a few hundred in comparison to an equally powerful intel cpu (buy a cooler for it, the stock fans are noisy as heck).  You'll have something reliable and respectable without paying through the roof.

I would recommend the opposite of this.  IME games tend not to use many cores and Intel CPUs generally have better single core performance, so on games where the CPU is important to performance Intel will be better. And while I've had some issues with AMD drivers on linux, it was a much smaller issue on windows (like a slightly lower max fps that didn't matter really because I limited it to 60 anyway) and last I looked the AMD cards tended to be notably cheaper than nVidia cards of roughly equivalent performance (moreso than the price difference between CPUs).

Of course, it would be even cheaper to just get an AMD CPU and video card both. I suspect most games won't need too much from the CPU, even if it becomes annoying when you like one that does.

[Zytan]

Eh, no matter how you do it it's a double-edged sword, I'm just speaking from personal experience.

[Onnes]

If you're interested in new releases then I would not recommend going with an AMD GPU at the moment. Early driver issues have been damn near universal for AMD cards lately, leading to crashes, visual artifacts, and extremely poor performance relative to equivalent Nvidia cards. 

Also keep in mind that you want to install the OS and your games to an SSD. The difference in load times between a disk drive and solid-state is often an order of magnitude.

In terms of choosing parts, I'd recommend finding a recent budget build guide from somewhere. (I haven't been paying attention lately so I don't have links off the top of my head.) Those sorts of guides should not only have an example system with itemized costs, but also explain the reasoning behind the component choices involved.

[Luccus]

Do you play any games aside from what is listed on your steam (or are you planning for any specific game)?
Do you already have a copy of windows?
What do you already know about hardware?

Usefull links:

CPU

GPU

RAM

PSU

HDD/SSD

Mainboard

Plugging the stuff together shouldn't be a problem if done with care and time.

[Kinare]

What standards you want to achieve and on what games will ultimately decide what you pick for your PC, so that's something you should settle with yourself first of all. Are you wanting to run top of the line games at 60fps with ease or not so much, just so long as it looks pretty decent? Though with 1000 euros it shouldn't be much of a struggle to get a decent rig together.

Generally speaking, Intel CPU and nVidia GPU = best. AMD is cheaper for a reason (and it's not just because of branding, though that's part of it no doubt). Main reason why most people go for nVidia over AMD is simply the drivers and overall compatibility, so if you play a lot of different games or high demand games then you want to go with nVidia. If you're just a casual gamer who only plays a select few games and don't plan to branch out, AMD would be perfectly acceptable, but check to see if the games you want to play have compatibility issues with AMD cards first.

Also worth a note that some games don't support SLI or crossfire very well or at all, so if I was gonna build a brand new PC I would just get one really solid GFX card and save my money for upgrading in the future when the one is 4 or so years old and starting to struggle.

A good CPU can last you a very long time, so I would definitely not cheap out there, and for crazy gaming I definitely recommend getting a decent liquid cooler put on that sucker. Some games can be CPU tasking, especially once the CPU does get older and requirements for games become higher. I've had the same PC for nearly 5 years now and the CPU is still going strong. I don't overclock at all because I'm afraid of breaking things, and even without doing so I probably don't need to consider upgrading the CPU for at least another couple of years.

An SSD is for the impatient folks and it's not a requirement by any means, so you could skip that for now and get one later when you had some more money to throw at the PC if you decided you were impatient too. I only have one myself because Ark took a fucking hour to load without one. I do recommend checking out reviews for SSDs/HDDs especially to make sure they have a good lifespan and aren't noisy as fuck.

Oh, and Newegg sales can be pretty good if you wait around for them to run specials. It can help you decide between two similar items (like MSI vs EVGA nVidia cards) when one goes on sale and the other doesn't. :3 I got a great deal on my MSI GTX 970 through them and turns out I like MSI's software better than EVGA's (my previous GTX 660 was EVGA). You can also get free video games with certain cards at certain times (not exclusive to Neweeg most of the time, but sometimes is), so look out for that as well.

[Azu]

There's already plenty of information here in this thread, so I'll just provide some basic advice based on personal experience

The worst and/or hardest part (imo) about building a PC is the front panel connectors.

They need to be placed in a certain orientation, and the printed text on the board below to guide the user is always incredibly tiny. That said, you probably won't get them all properly connected on the first attempt. Although, that's mostly because the rest of the PC build is actually quite simple, and you don't really need to think too hard about what goes where.

Building a PC really isn't all that difficult with that aside. The most intimidating part is mounting the CPU correctly, as to not bend the pins. But lets be real - It's really not that difficult at all. Just focus on getting a good deal on your components and avoid AMD like the plague!

Edited November 23, 2015 by Azurex

[Taikugemu]

 Buy a console.

[Vitaly]

 Buy a console.

shame on you

[Taikugemu]

shame on you

Jokes on you, that's my fetish.

[Guest]

I can always give you a full live video breakdown some time so you can learn and ask questions and receive immediate feedback. I have several board-mounted PCs for this explicit purpose.

That's a very nice offer but it won't be necessary, thank you

 

Thanks a lot everyone, I really appreciate all the feedback both for your advice and the provided links. Imma get a little more familiar with this whole ordeal then when I'll feel ready I'll probably give you an update. Expect me to ask you sometime in the future whether you think the components I'm meaning to buy are good or not, if you feel like helping me once more that is. Again, thank you all for the help guys