What is a budget gaming computer? Or better yet, a computer that is capable of gaming, high-end video, photo editing, or whatever you need it to do. Well, get ready to spend 2k on a rig like that. The cheap ones from Walmart, Bestbuy, or wherever you shop will not be able to accomplish any of those tasks.
What is a Gaming Computer?
What is the difference between a cheaper computer versus a gaming computer sold at Walmart, Bestbuy, Newegg, or anywhere else? Well, I’m actually not going to get into that just yet, you will learn all about that as I describe my budget gaming computer build that I’m currently using. The main difference I will say is that cheaper computers are cheaper for a reason. They use older, slower, and maybe even outdated parts. Gaming computers use the latest and greatest, plus some more added hardware not found in cheaper computers, and we will get to that.
If you chose to settle on a cheap rig, expect to get what you pay for. Granted, if all you want to do is go online and surf the web, check out Facebook, Instagram, and so on, it’s fine as long as you are not in a hurry. Turn it on, walk away for a few minutes, then come back later after it has time to boot up. Then, when you get signed on and onto Edge, Google, or whichever browser you like, get ready for load times between each page or click.
How I Built My Budget Gaming Computer
This is where I’m going to explain exactly how I built the custom rig that I’m using today. Granted, some of it is not the latest and greatest technology, but it works great for me. The main thing I discovered, you can build a great computer with used parts. Obviously, you need to be careful doing that, but I bought through eBay with a money-back guarantee.
The Hard Drive
In my opinion, this is by far the most important thing to consider. The most common storage device is an HDD or Hard Disk Drive. The better option by far is an SSD or Solid State Drive. This one thing makes the difference between the turtle and the rabbit for ANY computer.
To explain, think of the HDD as a hard drive with a DVD in it. It essentially works the exact same way. It has disks, sometimes multiple, that have to spin while an eye reads it. Just like a DVD player. Even with a drive spinning at 7,200 rpm a minute, it still takes time for it to read everything and put all the information together to get the next process done.
Now, the SSD has no moving parts of any kind. Think of it as a USB flash drive. There are no moving disks or any other parts in one of these. It is totally electronic and runs WAY faster. The standard transfer rate is 6 GB/minute.
With that said, an SSD can take ANY computer, not just a gaming rig, from a 3-4 minute boot time down to 40ish seconds. Sounds pretty nice right?!? Picture this, you press the power button and that computer is ready to use in less than a minute!
The Motherboard
To start, don’t use a cheap budget motherboard. I selected an ASUS gaming motherboard that I found on eBay with the CPU and ram already installed. For the motherboard, I had a full-size ATX case, so I wanted a full-size motherboard to take advantage of all expansion slots. I’ll go into that in a moment when we get to the GPU, or graphics card.
The exact one I chose was the best one available when I was shopping a few years back. My exact motherboard is an ASUS P8Z68-V PRO. It supports 2 graphics cards, and an LG1155 socket for Intel 2nd gen Core i7, i5, and i3 processors. On top of that, it supports up to DDR 2200 ram, but the standard is DDR 1600. We will talk about ram later.
The CPU
This is probably the most common thing that people get mixed up on. For instance, if you see a sticker that just says (Intel Inside), that is a slower, low-budget processor. For AMD I’m seeing the E series on their low-budget end. Granted, I’m no expert, but if it doesn’t say Core i? for Intell or Ryzen for AMD, it’s a slower and subpar processor.
My motherboard came with an Intel Core i5-3470 that runs at 3.20GHz. Yes, this is an older gen 2 processor, but I don’t find many today that will compare to the speed on any benchmark test without spending hundreds of more dollars for the latest and greatest. I have Googled my CPU against the AMD Athlon Gold CPUs that are less than 2 years old, and my i5 still kicks their butt!
The GPU
A GPU (graphics processing unit), better known as a graphics card, is not a must. That really will be determined by what you need to computer to do and run. If you are just getting online or basic word docs or spreadsheets, it’s probably not necessary. When talking about a budget gaming computer, if you don’t need it, don’t waste the money. On the other hand, if you want to get into gaming, video editing, or anything like that it will be a must.
There are dozens of different graphics cards available, so do your research and get the best one suited to your needs. For me, I selected an Nvidia G-Force 1060 with 8 gb of ram dedicated just to graphics. That means the computer doesn’t have to use the memory that it uses to run everything else. Furthermore, it supports Direct X 12 which a lot of games and high-end programs require to run.
The Ram
The ram is also important. Think of it as extra memory that is designed to load and run any program you open. Whether that be a web browser, spreadsheet, document, or game, that’s where anything your computer does comes into play. You want to have enough ram, or memory, to handle any task without getting bogged down.
My board came with 8 gb of standard memory that I donated to my son’s build with my old rig I was replacing. I took the 16 gb (4×4) of G-Skill Ripjaw gaming ram and installed that on my new build. I have not studied enough to talk about the difference between standard and gaming ram, so I’m just not going there. The one thing I do know is that the gaming ram has heat shields on them to keep them cool, and they just look cool.
The Case and Power Supply
I saved the case for last because you want to have the motherboard in hand before the case. It really doesn’t matter what case you use, as long as the motherboard will fit. With that in mind, they make several sizes of motherboards, so be sure to select a case yours will fit into. You can even reuse a case from an old computer as long as the motherboard fits.
Last but not least, you will need a power supply to run everything. A lot of cases will come with a power supply, but not all. If you use the case from an old computer it will surely have one but be sure it is powerful enough to run your build. If you install a GPU, or graphics card, you will need a good amount of wattage to supply power.
In my rig, I’m running a G-Force 1060 GPU, 2 DVD drives, 3 hard drives, and 4 coolant fans. With that said, I need more power than the average computer. I selected an EVGA 850-watt power supply because I got a good deal on it from Bestbuy.
Assemble Your Budget Gaming Computer
Let’s face it, with today’s internet, and especially YouTube, a person can do just about anything after watching a few videos. You don’t have to be a computer expert to put one together yourself. It also helps to open up an old computer and have a look inside to get a good idea of what it should look like. If you run into any problems, just Google it and you will find an answer pretty quickly.
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