What you need to build a gaming pc

Spend time thinking about what kind of case you want to live with. Most gamers prefer a full-tower or mid-tower design, both of which are large enough for full-size ATX motherboards.

More experienced builders enjoy the challenge of mini-ITX designs, though these require specially sized motherboards. Pay attention to the primary build materials in your computer chassis. Steel, plastic and aluminum all influence the fit-and-finish, durability and longevity in major ways. Go with the ones that offer the best protection from dust and damage. Another easy-to-overlook tool is a screwdriver. A magnetic screwdriver will save a world of tedious pain as it holds on to the tiny screws that can get lost during the actual building phase.

But as far as gaming PC components go, more or less everything has a place and a function. Sound cards might be the only exception. Motherboards typically provide good-enough or even excellent on-board audio without the added hassle and expense of a discrete sound card.

Many well-respected computer enthusiasts say sound cards are no longer relevant , although specific high-end applications benefit from the additional performance.

Most gamers can save their cash and put it towards the other components instead. What do you need to build a gaming PC? In addition to providing better performance than consoles, for longer, PC gaming also provides a sense of satisfaction from building something of your own.

Sign up for our newsletter below to receive updates about technology trends. AMD is sticking to low-end and mid-range solutions, while Nvidia is best for the high-end.

There are many other GPUs you can use, but the above ones are best to use. Nowadays Graphics cards utilize one of the following three cooling technologies these are. We recommend you to use Open-air cooling. It is the most popular cooling graphics card. It is mostly used for workstations and servers. The motherboard connects all the components physically. It does not mostly affect gaming, but it tells which and how many components you can install.

The most commonly used motherboard formats are the following:. For gaming purposes, we recommend you to have an SSD drive where you have installed all the games. All you need to think about when it comes to the Power supply is the wattage. Power supplies range from watts to watts anywhere, though, for most gaming PCs, watts is enough power.

It would help if you bought a high-quality power supply from a reliable manufacturer. Part 2: How to build a gaming PC for beginners: Putting it all together. Part 3: How to build a gaming PC for beginners: What to do if it all goes wrong.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology.

After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi. Building a gaming PC is arguably the best technological investment you can make. Marshall Honorof. Topics Gaming. See all comments 5. No offense, but are you pulling off one of those "just buy it" Tom's Hardware pulled off recently and went super well for them? Unless this is to make Intel and nVidia happy, this guide should really be made after those come out to actually recommend parts based on reviews of everything.

Sorry, but it is paculiar timing. So every time something new is coming out. This is less of a guide as a shopping list of what you bought.

You didn't talk about making sure your power supply has an efficiency rating so it doesn't blow up. This the Verge build in article form. This is fine but I don't know about this being a "guide" per se. Seems more like a blog with a few helpful tips.

Seems to focus more on the "why" for a singular, personal scenario. To be a proper guide, IMO, should go into more detail regarding choice of hardware, what specs to look for, how to check for compatibility, and offer more information on procuring them.

Having an article about picking parts and not mentioning certain specifics? I could go on. I mean it's vaguely informative but again, more of a blog with tips and not really a guide. This is a decent little overclocker, and while it won't affect gaming much, it'll help in other areas nicely. You also get Wi-Fi 6 wireless networking as well as Intel 2. Performance too is typically good for a high-end Asus board, matching X motherboards for gaming performance without issue.

It marks the same incredible generational leap in performance that has come to epitomise the Ampere architecture, up until the non-TI GeForce RTX , that is. And, because of its RTX Super performance levels, that means you can nail p and p frame rates, but also that 4K at 60fps isn't beyond the realms of possibility for this GPU. The RTX Ti then delivers gaming performance that's rather stupendous when you look at generational gains over even the RTX series—next to the series it's quite frightening, actually.

Memory is pretty straightforward these days, though if the price isn't much higher you can improve performance slightly with faster RAM. An NVMe M. Fitted with GB worth of NAND flash, there's enough space for your operating system, applications, and a handful of games, too. A single M. Given the install sizes of most modern PC games, it's probably a good idea to get yourself a new drive for your gaming PC.

While SATA SSDs are almost cheap enough to recommend as secondary storage what a world we're living in , you'll probably look to a regular HDD to keep the cost down when you hit multiple terabyte demands.

Realistically, you'll appreciate that speed if you're planning to keep your HDD inside a gaming PC for more than a couple of years, as we already see load times creep up for the biggest games of Power supplies are not the most exciting part of a gaming PC build. After all, it can be hard to tell them apart in terms of features. Even so, you don't want to skimp on your PSU. Corsair has an excellent and well-deserved reputation for its power supplies, and the TXM comes at a reasonable price and delivers 80 Plus Gold efficiency.

We also tend to go with modular PSUs where possible. Instead, the remaining wires have to find a home in your closet. Here's our guide to the best power supplies for PC gaming.

Your best chance of getting hold of the best graphics cards and CPUs right now is to buy one of the best gaming PCs or best gaming laptops.