What should be the characteristics of a gaming computer. How to choose a system unit. Which is better - Intel or AMD

 Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Giforces, Radeons, Gigabytes,Gigahertz ... How not to get confused in beautiful words? What to look for when choosing a gaming PC? What is important to knowto avoid making mistakes?

What you need to know before choosing a gaming computer?

1. Choosing a gaming computer starts with choosing the game that you will play on it - more precisely, with determining the system requirements of the game (s) for the computer.

There are many games and the requirements for the equipment are different for everyone. For example, Counter Strike is not at all demanding on hardware, while Mafia III, on the contrary, can slow down even on powerful computers. And popular among gamers, GTA V falls somewhere in between: it can be run on simple computers, but if you want to enjoy the stunning graphics of this game at maximum settings, you will need an above-average computer.

• The requirements of the game to the computer can be viewed on the website of the developer or publisher of the game, on the official website of the game, or you can ask our consultant (chat form with a consultant - at the bottom of the site)

2. The second parameter that is important to know before choosing components is the resolution of the monitor (or TV) that will be connected to your gaming computer.

Why is it important? The higher the resolution, the more powerful video card you need to take for an acceptable FPS (frames per second).

• The screen resolution in pixels can be found in the technical documentation, on the manufacturer's website according to the monitor / TV model, or in the device menu.

So, we have learned 2 inputs:

1. System requirements of the game to the hardware;
2. The resolution of the device that will show us the picture.

Based on these two data, we will choose the configuration of our future computer.

Where does the choice of a gaming computer begin?

1. The protagonist of the gaming computer: the video card.

It is the video card that creates the image that we see on the screen, it depends on its power whether the picture will be smooth or instead of the game we will get an intermittent slide show.

The graphics card must be able to handle our game on our screen. The word "handle" means that at medium settings the video card will be able to produce a stable FPS of at least 35 frames per second.

In this table, you can find out the minimum required video card for some games and the most popular resolutions at the end of 2017:

Didn't find the game in the table? Contact our consultants for help!

If you have not decided on the games yet, we suggest sticking to the line that for most modern games at high settings in FullHD (1920x1080) resolution, an NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti graphics card is enough– this is a very successful graphics card that runs fast, and the heat dissipation and power consumption are at a very low level!

The cooler and more expensive the video card (GTX 1060, 1070, and so on), the smoother the picture will be, the higher the graphics settings you can set in your favorite game– and thus get a more beautiful image, with shadows, highlights, reflections and more accurate details.

What to choose from video cards: NVIDIA GeForce or AMD Radeon? NVIDIA graphics cards are slightly faster in games, less demanding on power and cooling, and moreover, they are cheaper! You can find out the correspondence between the performance of GeForce and Radeon in the first table.

2. Select the central processor.

Surely you have heard that some processor "reveals" (or vice versa) some video card. The phrase "processor reveals the graphics card" implies that the power of the processor corresponds to the power of the video card - that is, the processor is powerful enough to give out FPS no less than the video card.

Why is it necessary? Each game process consists of 2 main components:

• Physics. Quantity, interaction of objects, heroes, their behavior– It's all calculated by the CPU. Each game loads the processor differently. The degree of processor utilization does not depend on the resolution and almost does not depend on the quality settings.
• Graphics. Texture overlay speed on objects and their quality , special effects, all this is the task of the video card. The higher the resolution, the higher the load on the video card.

The video card and the processor in games work in tandem. Each has its own area of ​​responsibility.

In order for the game to avoid slowdowns, FPS drawdowns and other unpleasant lags, it is necessary that the processor allows the video card to work at 100%. That is, FPS in games should be limited by the video card, not the processor. Otherwise it will turn out that the video card– most expensive gaming computer component– does not fulfill all the money paid for it.

What processor to choose for the previously selected video card?

The answer again depends on the resolution of your monitor (TV)! The lower the screen resolution, the more FPS the video card can give.- the more FPS the processor should provide! Conversely, the higher the resolution- the less powerful processor you can take for the selected video card

In the table you can see the minimum allowed processors for each specific video card, depending on the resolution at which you will play.

The table is compiled on the basis of numerous tests in a variety of games

For example, you want to play GTA 5 at maximum settings on a 23" monitor with a resolution of 1920x1080 and decide to use an NVIDIA GTX 1060 graphics card.- it means that for these purposes it is worth taking an Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processor, or better– Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7. But if you play on a monitor with a resolution of 2560x1440 or higher, then the processorIntel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 will be enough

3. Motherboard for your new gaming computer.

There are many motherboards, but games, despite the sometimes 10-fold difference in price, are not significantly affected. There is one universal advice here: if you do not plan to practice overclocking and want to save money, choose a motherboard with a "medium" chipset: for Intel it is B250 (B350 for the new 8th generation Coffee Lake processors), for AMD– B350. It is important that the capacitors on the motherboard are solid-state (Solid Capacitor in English): this will significantly increase the reliability of the board. If you have difficulty choosing– contact us for advice!

4. RAM.

Volume - n It's less than 8GB. 16GB is better, but you can make yourself an "installment plan"- buy a second 8GB some time after buying a computer. Most modern games still have enough 8 GB. Increasing the RAM yourself is very simple. There is no point in 32GB of RAM for a gaming computer today.

5. SSD or HDD - which is better for a gaming PC?

SSD is very fast but expensive. SSD drives speed up the loading of the operating system and remove any delays when accessing data on the computer. However, in games, SSD only speeds up the loading of the game itself and individual levels, applying settings, etc. Therefore, the ideal option is to install a 120-240GB SSD for the OS and a couple of your favorite games that you play most often, and a separate HDD with a capacity of 1TB or more to store a large amount of personal data (photos, videos, games, programs, etc.).

But if the budget is limited, you can get by with one ordinary hard drive, the main thing is that the spindle speed is at least 7200 rpm, otherwise there may be slowdowns in games: there were such cases in our practice!

6. Should I buy an expensive gaming PC case? Or can you get it cheap?

The case, as you understand, does not affect FPS in any way. Even in the cheapest case, the Core i7 will remain itself and will not turn into a Celeron. The main differences between expensive and cheap cases, in addition to design, are as follows:

• metal thickness. The thicker, the more rigid the construction, which eliminates the possibility of deformation of the walls of the case and boards over time. In addition, the thicker the metal of the computer case, the better its dust, noise and vibration isolation.
• Thoughtful cooling. In expensive cases, you can often find additional fans or additional places for them.
• The bottom location of the power supply. This improves heat transfer in the case, its stability.
• Additional connectors and useful "chips". For example, twice as many USB ports or a screen with temperature indication, reobas (allows you to change the rotation speed of case fans)

The conclusion is this: you can save on the case in the case of an inexpensive system, otherwise it looks like "saving on matches": the difference in price between a simple case and an "advanced" one is not worth losing all the advantages of the latter.

7. Healthy eating

Everyone needs it, not just people! The power supply is a very important part of any gaming computer. Power should be selected based on the recommendations of the video card manufacturer (the requirements are usually indicated on the video card page on the manufacturer's website). Modern video cards are characterized by low power consumption. For example, for systems based on the GTX 1060, a 500W output power supply from a good manufacturer is enough: for example, Zalman, Aerocool, Chieftec, FSP.

8. Cooling system. How to choose a CPU cooler?

The processor heats up during operation and it needs to be cooled - this is a fact. How to choose an efficient CPU cooler? To do this, we need to know 2 things:

• Processor socket - i.e. the name of the socket ("socket") in which the processor is installed. For example, Socket 1151 for modern Intel processors or AM4 for AMD Ryzen processors. Choose a cooler that fits your CPU socket or a universal one (denoted "Socket-All".
• Processor thermal power (TDP, "thermal package") is the power in Watts that the processor delivers. It's important to choose a cooler that dissipates power equal to or more than what the processor puts out. If you plan to overclock the processor, it is better that the cooler has a headroom of at least 30%. (i.e. with a processor TDP of 100W, the cooler should have a TDP of 130W)

Inexpensive CPU coolers have an aluminum heatsink. More expensive models have a copper core, they dissipate heat from the processor more efficiently. Coolers with copper heat pipes are even better: as a rule, they have a tower-type design - they direct the air flow towards the back of the computer, and not towards the motherboard.

Remember: the main thing when choosing a cooler is to pay attention to socket compatibility, TDP and noise level produced by the cooler. It's great if the noise level is below 21 dB - in this case, you simply won't notice it.

Any questions? Call! Write! We will gladly help!

Computer technology has become an integral part of our lives. Any office, home cannot be imagined without a computer or laptop. Before going to the store, you should think about how to choose a good computer for home, work and play, the purpose of acquiring a computer and the tasks that it will perform. The goals can be completely different: work at home, in an office environment with Internet access, video conversion, photographic image processing and much more. It is necessary to determine the purpose of the purchase in order to choose a high-tech device according to the essential parameters and features.

If a computer is chosen only for the home, with the help of which they are going to go online, communicate via Skype and social networks, watch movies, download video games, then its price can be inexpensive. About 300 dollars.

When purchasing an inexpensive device, you should remember: the cheapest modern computer will run much faster than system unit, launched on the market about three years ago and was especially cool at that time.

Computer for home use

If computer equipment is necessary for work, there is no need to rush. It is necessary to collect as much information as possible, read the article how to choose a good computer.

Bonuses and additional payments to the salary of the seller often depend on the revenue of the store. Therefore, he can sell what is completely unnecessary at an inflated price. After examining the entire range of products presented, collecting reviews and comprehensive opinions, you will find the best computer for yourself.

There are a huge number of system blocks on the computer market. All of them have different power, performance, system requirements.

The main characteristics that you should pay attention to when buying a computer:

• The amount of RAM (computer RAM) provides data storage. Its minimum size is 4 GB (gigabytes), the maximum is 8 GB. If you are going to use, download and store a large amount of information, then 8 GB of memory is the most acceptable option.

comparison table random access memory DDR3

• The most important properties of the processor are the type and frequency, the number of cores. The speed of the computer processor depends on the value clock frequency. It denotes the number of operations performed by the system per second. The higher the frequency value, the faster the computer runs.
• There are two types of video cards for computers. Integrated - built into the motherboard. It cannot be changed. Computers with integrated video cards are suitable only for work in office mode. Discrete - this is a separate card, installed in a special compartment on the motherboard. The video card is chosen according to your needs. If you are a video game lover, the card must be powerful. The price of a card directly depends on its power. Cards for gaming games are expensive.
• Motherboard. Its size doesn't matter. The main requirement for the board is its uninterrupted operation.
• HDD. The larger the hard drive on your computer, the more information you can store on your computer.
• What you need to pay attention to when choosing a system unit is the cooling system. If the cooling system does not work properly, this may cause damage to the technical device.

Photo of the cooling process in the system unit

• Optical drive. Choose the drive that has the ability to record information in more formats. Write speed is also important.
• Number of connectors. If you use flash drives every day, charge your phone, camera through a computer, the number of connectors will matter.
• Operating system. It is possible to buy a computer with an already installed system, or without it. Keep in mind, a computer without an installed system will cost less.
• The weight of the system unit. This option should be of interest to laptop buyers. When buying a stationary system unit, this information is not important.
• Choose a computer for gaming, home or work according to significant characteristics, with an acceptable price-quality ratio.

Gaming PC

The cost of computer models ranges from the cheapest copies, from 10,000 rubles to fancy and stuffed with everything you can devices costing more than 60,000 rubles. Suggested review computer technology, will answer the question: which computer is better to buy.

System unit based on Intel Core i5 and i7 processor:

• An expensive device for 50,000 rubles Intel Core i5-4670K.

Powerful Gaming Computer (AMD):

• Expensive processor 60,000 rubles Amd Athlon II X4 840.

AMD-based system unit up to 30,000 rubles:

• This option costs 30,000 rubles, the functionality corresponds to the cost. Processor AMD FX-6350.

System block on Intel-based Core i3:

• Intel Core i3- 4130. The price of this device will be approximately 23,000 thousand rubles.

Computer up to 15,000 rubles Intel:

• This option, not expensive, but good, is the Intel Celeron G1820.

Budget computer up to 15,000 rubles AMD:

• From the AMD series, we can offer the AMD A4-5300.

AMD Series

When buying in a store, be sure to check the availability of all documents for the computer, instructions, receipt. Make sure you get a warranty.

Output

Progress does not stand still. Technologies are developing rapidly. Therefore, when buying a super modern computer for a lot of money, produced, for example, this year, one must be prepared that after a while it will no longer be as powerful and functional as new models. We hope this article helped you learn how to choose the right computer.

Video review and tips from experts:

This material will give advice on how to choose or how to assemble. Many computing platforms, an impressive list of models CPUs, graphics adapters and other components make this task intractable today. But armed with the recommendations outlined in this material, it will be easy and simple to choose exactly the PC configuration that suits you.

Platform selection

The first step is how to choose a gaming system unit, is to select the processor socket. Precisely repellingcampingfrom this choiceand you will need to select the steel components of the computer. Currently 4 sockets are relevant:

• FM2+.
• AM3+.
• LGA2011-3 .
• LGA1151.

The first processor socket FM2+ is aimed at the niche of budget, office and multimedia systems. It is completely inappropriate to consider it as the basis for a gaming computer. much better for these purposes. But the processors of this platform were last updated in 2012. During this time, they have become seriously outdated. As a result, such chips are not entirely suitable for the implementation of a gaming PC. The LGA 2011-3 processor socket offers only high-performance processors that are suitable for expensive and high-performance computers. As a result, an affordable and productive computer platform with modern hardware can be assembled only based on LGA1151. It is on this socket that it is recommended that a potential owner of a new gaming system unit choose to stop today.

We select the model of the central processor

Such a system unit must meet two important requirements at once: its price should be as low as possible, but the performance should also be at an acceptable level and allow all modern toys to be launched. Moreover, in the latter case, it is necessary to add that the parameters of the displayed image should be as good as possible. The minimum technical specifications and a similar level of performance in the context of the gaming platform have processors of the Core i3 family. It is on their basis that you need to organize entry-level gaming PCs. In this case, processors 6100, 6300 and 6320 have similar specifications. But at the same time, the cost of the first of them is much lower and it is on its basis that such a computing system will be most correctly assembled. If the budget allows, then you can take a more expensive modification of the chip, due to this, the speed of the computer will increase.

Motherboard

Inexpensive should be based on an inexpensive, but at the same time sufficiently functional motherboard. Of course within the socketLGA1151Intel has offered a variety of system logic sets that are different both in price and in functionality.The most affordable among them is H110. Its capabilities are quite enough to create an entry-level gaming system. It also has two slots for installing RAM (that is, even 16 GB of RAM can be placed on it) and there is also one slot for installing a discrete graphics accelerator. It must also be added thatCore i3-6100or any other chip in this family comes with a locked multiplier and somehow it is impossible to overclock a processor of this class in the usual way. Therefore, overpaying for an option that will not be used in the future does not make much sense. An example is the modelASUS H110M- TO with a cost of 3000 rubles. But you can pay attention to motherboards from any other manufacturer, exceptBiostar.It is better to exclude the products of the latter company for the reason that its products are not distinguished by increased reliability.

Graphics adapter

Again, at the same time productive and inexpensive should be an entry-level gaming system unit. Price and the speed of the graphics accelerator in this case play one of the leading roles.It is on it that it is not recommended to save. Although solutions have minimal performanceGeForce 1050 And radeon rx460,but it's better to report the same $ 50 and buy video cardsGeForce 1050 Ti or Radeon RX470.For the first video card, you will have to pay 10,000 rubles, and for the second - 12,000 rubles. But this overpayment will eventually result in the fact that the amountFPSin toys will increase significantly.An example is a video card manufacturedASUS models STRIX-RX470,which belongs to the seriesROG and has 4 GB.

RAM

Cheap gaming system units today must include a minimum of 8 GB of RAM. The type of RAM used must be DDR4. It is under the use of such strips that the RAM controllers within the LGA1151 are sharpened. If, however, we notice the currently outdated DDR3 standard as part of the gaming system, then compatibility problems may arise, which will ultimately result in the fact that the processor may fail. Again, the presence of a 2-channel RAM controller as part of the CPU indicates that it is better to use 2 4 GB modules instead of 1 bar for 8 GB. This will ultimately allow you to get an additional 5% performance boost. The frequency of the modules in this case should be 2133 MHz. The cost of a set of 2 bars with such a frequency today is 2500-2600 rubles.

Disk subsystem

Although it is planned to assemble or buy an inexpensive gaming system unit, its disk subsystem must necessarily include an SSD drive and a hard drive. The first of them is strongly recommended to be used only for installing software that requires maximum performance. This and operating system, these are toys, and other most important application software. The second element of the disk subsystem is most correctly used for storing personal information or "saved" toys. An SSD with a size of 120 GB will cost 2,500 rubles, and a hard drive with a capacity of 2 TB will cost 2,500-3,000 rubles.

Power supply, case and cooling system

In this case, increased requirements are put forward for the case, as well as for the power supply. The first should have additional cooling, which would eliminate the possible overheating of computer components. It is these requirements that ASUS gaming system blocks correspond to. It is on them that it is recommended to stop the choice. For example, you can buy ASUS TA8-C2 models for 2500 rubles. The power of the power supply in such a system should be at the level of 550W. The LW-6550HG from HuntKey fully complies with these requirements and costs about 1800 rubles. It should also be noted that this product belongs to the energy efficient series and is labeled Green Star.

Monitor, keyboard, manipulator and acoustics

On this, in principle, the entry-level gaming system unit has already been assembled. We select components such as a keyboard, mouse and speaker system at our discretion. At the same time, we start from their cost, quality and ease of use. In this case, special requirements are put forward for the monitor. Its diagonal must be at least 24 inches, and the resolution of the displayed image must be equal to 1920 X 1080 px. It should also be based on an IPS-matrix. An example is the VP247H from ASUS. It costs now about 9000 rubles.

Results

This material described how to assemble or which one to choose. A complete list of recommended components for such a system is given in the table below.

This is the minimum game configuration at the moment. Based on it, you can assemble with additional investments a more productive system unit. It should also be noted that the table does not include peripheral devices and an acoustic subsystem. You can choose them according to your choice.

In my previous article, I talked about how to choose components for assembling a budget home computer. It is realistic to assemble such a computer within 15,000 rubles and it will fit for work and study, and running modern games on it will be impossible.

But after all, someone wants to have a high-performance computer on which it will be possible, in principle, to do anything. This is the computer on which all modern games will run, powerful graphic programs and the entire system as a whole. Accordingly, such an assembly will cost you about 45,000-50,000 rubles and probably even a little more. But such a computer is completely unreasonable to buy if no one will play games or work in professional graphic editors! In this case, just overpay a large amount ... In the end, you can take something mediocre (thousands for 25), on which you can play some modern toys (but not at maximum graphic settings) and at the same time, of course, work.

Therefore, in today's article I will talk about the choice of components for assembling a gaming home computer and, after reading this material, you will already be guided from what price category and which components to choose and you can buy everything yourself!

There is an option to simply buy a ready-made (already assembled) system unit and not bother with the selection of components, but it will cost more and not very high-quality parts could be stuffed into it during assembly! Read more about buying a ready-made computer in the previous article by clicking on the link above. I recommend reading that article in order to understand the difference between the components for a budget office computer and a high-performance gaming computer.

If you are a beginner and do not yet know which computer component is needed for what, what it looks like and what characteristics it has, then I strongly recommend that you read my article about this:

Well, now let's proceed directly to the choice of all components for the subsequent assembly of a home gaming computer! We will not consider the choice of laptops / netbooks here, and this will be discussed in one of the following articles.

We select components for assembling a high-performance gaming computer!

If you decide to assemble a very powerful computer, then you have money, at least in the region of 50,000 rubles today, since everything, as you know, has risen in price a lot. We will select the components for assembling a gaming computer. When assembling such a computer, the main money will fly away to the processor and video card.

In the previous article, I already said that, in my opinion, it is most convenient to select components for the subsequent assembly of a computer through online stores, where it is possible to flexibly filter the selected product by characteristics. Here is an example of such stores for the city of Moscow: Ulmart, Wow! , Citylink . You can also select the desired product through the service from Yandex - Yandex-Market, which at the same time will indicate all the stores in your city where it is currently possible to purchase the product you are looking for and at what price!

Processor selection. A processor from the Intel Core i5 family of one of the modifications is suitable. I have already heard more than once that even in cool games the newer line - Core i7 does not load to its fullest and that some significant difference from Core i5 is often imperceptible. At the same time, I myself have Core i5 installed on one PC, Core i7 on the other, and at the same time I can run the same modern new products with the same performance here and there. Then why do we need to overpay the extra 4,000 rubles now? I think that an i5 processor with the addition of a powerful graphics card and good RAM will be more than enough.

The Core i5 processor (like the Core i7 and almost all other lines) is sold not only in one modification, as beginners might think. There are several varieties of these families of processors, differing from each other in frequency, number of cores, volume internal memory(Cache) and other additional parameters. The price range for Core i5 processors will be from about 10,000 (if you take the cheapest Core i5) to 18,000 rubles.

You can take, for example, this one: Intel Core i5-4690K, on ​​average, for 15,000 rubles (in my example, 15,670 rubles):

The selected processor, according to the characteristics, has an LGA 1150 socket, therefore, when choosing a motherboard, it will be necessary first of all to make sure that the board supports such a processor!

If you take everything to the maximum for a gaming computer, then at a cost it will bypass some server computers and go beyond 150,000 rubles. Because even if you take the Core i7 processor, which is from a higher class, then their cost starts from 19,000 and can exceed 70,000 rubles! We, accordingly, will not consider this :) We will meet somewhere in the region of 50,000 rubles, taking into account that such a computer will freely draw all modern games without slowdowns for a long time to come!

Choosing a cooler (fan) for the processor. When buying a good processor, the cooler that comes with it in the kit can be safely thrown aside :) We buy powerful hardware, which means we need to take care of good cooling. And if, when choosing a budget version of a computer, you can safely install a built-in cooler and not be afraid of overheating, then when assembling a gaming PC, it is better to immediately buy a good cooler!

Which company to choose a cooler is everyone's business, and here you won't see any big difference in quality and price. But the most famous and proven are: Zalman, as well as Cooler Master. You can buy a suitable one for 500-700 rubles on average.

It is very important that the cooler fits your processor socket, otherwise you simply cannot install it on the motherboard! To do this, the characteristics always indicate compatibility with sockets. If we take the example of a processor that I showed in point #1, then it has an LGA 1150 socket. This means that the characteristics of the cooler must indicate that it is compatible with this socket!

Here is an example: Zalman CNPS 90F for 490 rubles:

A good cooler that is compatible with the selected CPU socket and inexpensive.

Choice system board . A motherboard for a gaming computer will cost us almost the same money as we charged for a motherboard for a budget computer, on which you won’t play games much. We definitely need support for the processor we have chosen (in my example, the processor socket is LGA1150), modern ports, support for the most modern video cards and the ability to install at least 8 GB of RAM with a frequency of at least 1600 MHz.

By firms, we choose Asus, Gigabyte or MSI as the most priority and reliable, and at a price somewhere around 3500 rubles. Such a fee will meet our requirements.

Here is an example of a suitable motherboard for 3520 rubles:

The board has everything we need:

• The board supports the processor, which I showed in the example in point #1. The specifications of the board indicate that it supports LGA 1150 socket and Intel Core i5 processor type.

  Has the correct connector PCI Express x16 3.0 to install a modern graphics card.

  Supports installation of up to 4 RAM modules with a total maximum capacity of 32 GB and with a module frequency of 1600 MHz. We have enough 8 GB of RAM.

  Has USB 3.0 outputs. Useful for connecting modern fast flash drives and external hard drives.

  There are SATA3 connectors for connecting modern hard drives and SSDs inside the computer case.

Choosing a gaming graphics card. Buying a video card is one of the most crucial moments when choosing components for a gaming computer. The choice of this component will take us a decent tidy sum from the total budget - about 15,000 rubles! :) But we want to play modern toys comfortably and without brakes, and at the same time also new items coming out in the future, don't we? So, you can't do without a really powerful video card.

According to the type of video processor, video cards are divided into 2 types: AMD Radeon (ATI) and NVIDIA GeForce. It is pointless to talk about the advantage of any of these two video processors. In one game, a video card with an AMD processor may perform better, in another - a card with an NVIDIA processor.

In mining, for example, they succeed significantly Radeon video cards and always earn more than GeForce. You can read about what mining is, as well as the results of my experiments, starting from this article:

Consider the important parameters of a video card that you should pay attention to when choosing it:

• Video card memory type. The video card has its own built-in memory for storing game data in order not to use RAM, which will be slower to access and, as a result, performance will be lost.

  Now on the market you can find video cards with memory: GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, GDDR5. The older the type of memory, the faster it is and generally better its characteristics. The most modern at the moment is GDDR5, and we will aim at it when choosing a video card.

  Video card memory. The larger the amount of memory built into the video card, the more game data it can store there and not access them in the slower computer RAM. As a result, performance is greatly increased! Now on the market, as a rule, you can find cards with memory from 512 MB to 6144 GB. It is not at all necessary for us to have a maximum memory of 6 gigabytes, but it is enough to have fast GDDR5 memory and a volume of anywhere from 2 to 4 GB.

  Video memory bus width. This is the "highway" through which data is exchanged between the processor of the video card and its memory. The larger the bus, the more data will be transmitted at the same time and, as a result, the speed increases. On the market there are video cards with buses from 32 bits to 512 bits. A 256-bit bus is enough, if the other parameters are also at a good level.

  Cooling system. Video cards can have active and passive cooling. Passive - a simple heatsink that is installed on the video card. Active - radiator + fan (cooler), which gives good cooling. Know that a good gaming graphics card simply cannot have cooling in the form of a simple radiator! Such a video card will constantly overheat and eventually just burn out. Passive cooling will go on budget video cards that are designed for "light", outdated games and running simple programs for working with graphics. A gaming video card must have active cooling, and now such video cards often have several coolers (usually 2 or 3)

Also, when choosing a video card, the question may arise: “Which manufacturer’s video card should I choose?”. There is no definite answer here, but these manufacturers have proven themselves the most: Asus, Gigabyte, MSI.

And finally, we check the characteristics of the video card so that it has a PCI Express x16 3.0 connector for connecting to the motherboard.

A good gaming graphics card, as I mentioned above, will cost you around 15,000 rubles.

Here is an example of a good choice (Gigabyte GV-N760OC-4GD, GTX760, 4096MB, GDDR5, Retail) for 16480 rubles:

This is such an expensive pleasure - a video card, if you want to play all today's game novelties and have a reserve for the future :)

Choice of RAM. Everything is much simpler here. For games, we need 8 GB of RAM or more. More will cost already quite expensive, despite the fact that on 8 GB in combination with a good processor and video card, you can play everything in a row. The selected motherboard must support RAM running at at least 1600 MHz! If we consider the motherboard, which I took as an example for this article, then it just supports the operation of the RAM at such a frequency. Accordingly, we also select RAM with a frequency of 1600 MHz. Below is not needed, will run slower!

Also, do not forget that we need DDR3 memory, which is by far the most popular. The motherboard must support this type of memory! And DDR4 has appeared relatively recently and is even more expensive, and boards with support for such memory will also, accordingly, be more expensive.

In addition to the amount of memory, its type and frequency, the question may also arise: "Take 8 GB of memory in one module or a set with 2 modules of 4 GB each?". One bar will always cost less than a set of 2 modules. At the same time, 2 bars using special technology work faster, but this is not essential, and you will not even notice the difference! Then why overpay, right?

By firms, we choose Hynix or Kingston. I personally prefer them. As a result, memory for a gaming computer will cost us around 4,500 - 5,000 rubles.

An example of the selected RAM for 4880 rubles:

Choice hard drive(HDD). The hard drive has little to do with running games, but you won't just play games and that's it :) You will store some files, documents, movies, programs and anything. Therefore, I recommend taking a hard drive with a capacity of 1 TB. (1000 GB) with a SATA3 connector, which is supported by the motherboard chosen in my example. If you want to have a really modern and fast computer, then you also choose a board for yourself that will support modern connectors and buses, including SATA3 for connecting hard drives.

Of the companies, we stop at Seagate or Western Digital, as the most famous and reliable. Personally, I tend to prefer Seagate.

A hard drive with the above parameters will cost around 3200 - 4000 rubles.

An example of a selected hard drive (Seagate Barracuda 7200.14, ST1000DM003 1TB) for 3330 rubles:

Selecting a power supply. Our assembled gaming computer will be quite gluttonous in terms of power due to the video card alone, and therefore you need to take a good power supply. First of all, you should look at the characteristics of the purchased video card, what is the minimum power of the power supply required for its operation. If we take as an example a video card from paragraph 4 of this article, then it requires at least 500 watts. So we take the power supply for a reserve, 600-700 watts, so that it is enough to feed our entire system. Accordingly, you need to choose a power supply based on which video card you have chosen. If it requires a power of about 200-300 W, then it makes no sense to take a 600-700 V power supply, as in my example.

The next thing that is very important when choosing a power supply is the availability of connectors for connecting all purchased devices. We especially pay attention to the presence of connectors for powering the video card. Modern video cards have a power connector, as a rule, PCI-E 6-pin or 2 PCI-E 6-pin connectors at once, as in the video card I showed on the example (see paragraph 4 of the article).

Also, the power supply must have connectors:

• 24-pin ATX for motherboard connection;

  4-pin CPU for connecting additional power to the processor;

  At least 2 SATA connectors for connecting a hard drive and a floppy drive (or 2 hard drives / SSD, for example).

There are several manufacturers of high-quality power supplies, and here are some of them: FSP, OCZ, Zalman, Hiper CoolerMaster, Chieftec, Foxconn. But many other companies also produce decent power supplies, sometimes at a lower price. Here everyone has their own preferences.

The power supply we need will cost around 3000-4000 rubles.

The selected power supply for the system assembled according to the example from this article for 3610 rubles:

Selecting a CD/DVD Drive. This item is not required if you never use disk drives for any purpose! But personally, I still often need a drive in order to burn a DVD disc with a movie, a CD with music in the car. It is also more convenient for me to run all sorts of boot programs from the disk, including installing / reinstalling Windows. Because doing all of the above with a flash drive, very often there are various difficulties that you just don’t want to waste time on. And with disks, everything is much easier.

If you need a drive, and I think most people need it, then when choosing it, you should definitely make sure that the connection connector is SATA. There are also drives with a Molex connector, but they have long been outdated! Moreover, the board that you chose for a gaming computer is simply obliged to support SATA connectors for connecting devices such as disk drives and hard drives/ SSD :)

Good companies to look out for when choosing a drive: NEC, Asus, Pioneer, Plexter

Choosing a simple CD / DVD burner, you can easily meet around 1,500 rubles.

An example of a very good drive for writing and reading any CD / DVD discs for 1020 rubles:

I am not considering buying a Blu-Ray drive here, because they are expensive and not everyone needs them. If you need to burn and read Blu-Ray discs on your computer, then of course you will have to spend somewhere from 5000 rubles instead of 1000-1500 :)

Just in case, here is an example of a good Blu-Ray drive worth 5500 rubles:

Enclosure selection. Well, we got to the case, which will serve as a place for permanent storage of all purchased components and provide good air circulation :) There are no special requirements for choosing a case, in principle. The main thing is its size. The case should freely accommodate all our components and, most importantly, the motherboard and video adapter. In order to understand whether the case is suitable for us in size or not, it has a characteristic - the form factor. The form factor indicates which motherboard will fit in the case. For example, if the ATX form factor is specified in the characteristics of the case, then it will be able to place both a full-size ATX board and its reduced version - miniATX (or mATX). What format of the board you have chosen is indicated in its characteristics in the "Form factor" column. The board from my example has a form factor - mATX and it is by far the most common.

Be sure to pay attention to the maximum length of the video card and the height of the CPU cooler that can fit in the case. Modern gaming video cards are quite bulky and it will be sad if it suddenly does not fit into the purchased case :) You will see the dimensions of the video card in its characteristics, respectively. The height of the fan for the processor (cooler) is also indicated in the specifications. Well, in fact, the maximum supported sizes of both are indicated in the characteristics of the case itself ...

Do not forget that we do not need to buy a case with a built-in power supply, as it is convenient to do when buying a budget version of a computer. We have already chosen a good power supply for our system, and even more so the power supplies that come with the case are often not of very good quality, and for a gaming computer a reliable power supply is very important!

You can safely buy a suitable case for our pieces of iron up to 3000 rubles. I will not give preference to any particular firms. Everyone chooses a convenient one for themselves, and also often suitable in design.

An example of a selected case (Cooler Master CMP 350, RC-350-KKN1) for 2390 rubles:

Well, the selection of the necessary components for assembly has been completed. good computer for games :) If you calculate the cost of acquiring all the components according to my examples from this article, you get the amount: 51390 rubles! That's how much it can cost you to build a powerful computer. Of course, it is possible and cheaper, but, therefore, you will lose performance somewhere when playing future game hits.

You probably noticed that I did not touch upon the choice of a sound card in this article. Why you don’t need to buy it, I already spoke in a previous article about assembling a budget computer, but I’ll remind you again. Sound card built into 99.9% of all motherboards and it is more than enough for the standard tasks of all users. It is not suitable, perhaps, only for professional work with music. As an example, connecting an electric guitar or some other musical instrument and working with its sound through special programs. For such purposes, you need to buy an external good sound card!

In one of my subsequent articles I will talk about the choice of the main peripherals for a home computer, such as a monitor, speakers (acoustic system), keyboard and mouse:

I hope that my articles will be useful to someone :)

That's all. See you;)

In addition to the fact that the computer stores themselves are divorced immeasurably, besides, in the stores themselves, the choice of both ready-made computers and individual components for them is simply incredible. To an uninitiated user, it will not be clear what is responsible for what and what to choose. Often, people are guided by prices, by the number of gigabytes, gigahertz, cores, or simply listen to what sales managers tell them.
I, in turn, in this field, as they say, "ate the dog" and I know not only what goes with what, but also about more serious and important details, without knowing which, you can make gross mistakes. In this post, I will briefly try to talk about some of the details of choosing system components and give 3 examples of gaming computer configurations that you can order and assemble, both on your own and in a store.
The first thing to consider when choosing a gaming computer is that you should never buy them ready-made! Those people who are engaged in the selection of components do not at all want to select the appropriate components for a gaming computer, moreover, the finished PCs themselves, as a rule, are much more expensive than the computer you have chosen yourself, or rather its components, for subsequent assembly, and even taking into account that some stores take money for assembly, anyway, the kit you choose will be more powerful and cheaper than ready-made analogues. Therefore, we forget about ready-made solutions and proceed to the choice of components.
When choosing components for a gaming PC, you need to consider the following factors:
1) And most importantly! The performance of a computer and its individual components cannot be measured by comparison with other models based on the amount of memory in gigabytes, or based on frequencies, number of cores, etc. Real performance is measured in terms of specific programs, in real tests that are conducted on popular, reputable publications dedicated to computers and components, you can easily find information on individual components by typing a query into Google, such as "Intel i5-4590k review", or for example "GTX980Ti review". In order to verify the veracity of the information, go to 3-4 different reviews at once and check the information, if it converges approximately everywhere, then everything is correct.
2) Intel processors almost always turn out to be more powerful than AMD processors in games, and it doesn’t matter at all that the same intel i3 has only 2 physical cores, and the same AMD FX-8300 has as many as 8, and even for a large frequency. But the point is that intel processors strikingly large performance of each core and this performance gives them an advantage over AMD processors in games, because games are rather reluctant to optimize for multi-threading (multi-core). Therefore, when choosing a processor, you need to focus on real tests in real games, and not on synthetic tests, such as SuperPi. The most optimal processor for games is almost any intel i5 with a frequency above 3.2 GHz, and if you need more performance, then pay attention to processors with the letter "K" at the end, such processors can overclock, which adds to performance and sometimes very much ! Also, it is worth keeping a balance between the processor and the video card, it is completely useless to put the intel i5 in combination with, say, the GTX750Ti, but it will also be too illogical to put the i3 and the GTX980Ti, it will not be enough. It should be remembered that the processor should not cost more than the video card!
3) A video card is the main component of a gaming computer, on the basis of this component you need to build a gaming computer and the power of a video card is not measured in gigabytes, or simply in megahertz, in fact, there is no power measurement in principle. There are separate indicators, such as - the amount of memory, which is not so important if you have more than 3 gigabytes on a video card from 15000r, or from 2 gigabytes on cheaper cards, or frequency GPU, which can vary between different models, of the same product (the same chip model, say GTX970, can be produced by a dozen companies and each video card will be different), etc. Also, it is worth considering that there are reference and non-reference designs, what does this mean? The reference design is the standard design provided by the manufacturer for this video card model, the reference design video cards heat up and make more noise, so their purchase is not recommended. Video cards of non-reference design heat up less and make less noise, as they have the best system cooling, with several large and quiet fans, and also sometimes have a different component base, which allows them to be more efficiently overclocked, so I recommend purchasing video cards only of non-reference design.
4) The amount and frequency of RAM - in fact, the amount of RAM for games is only 8 gigabytes, more is not needed in fact, and the frequencies do not play a special role, so the best choice is 2 memory sticks of 4 gigabytes with a frequency of 1600 MHz, preferably Samsung Original, or HYNIX Original. Sticks without the word "Original" are counterfeits on these chips and are of inferior quality.

5) Hard drive and SSD - most games only need an acceptable hard drive like Western Digital Black and no positive response from SSD installations, will not be in games, but installing the same SSD allows the system itself to work much faster and speeds up the loading of games itself.
6) Motherboards - the biggest misconception is that expensive, cool motherboards give an increase in performance. This, alas, is not so! The motherboard is the link between the processor, memory, video card and other components of the system, in fact, the motherboard is the wires between the components of the system. But also, it is worth considering that motherboards may have functions that are important to you and you should choose a motherboard based on your needs. When choosing a motherboard, in addition to the obvious things, such as choosing a socket (socket for a processor) and checking compatibility with the selected processor, you need to look at - the number of connectors you need - SATA for hard drives and drives, USB 2.0 and 3.0, etc. look at the presence of such functions as SLI, Crossfire, which allow you to install several video cards at the same time, but if you don’t need such a function now, then it’s better to refuse to buy such motherboards, you overpay huge sums for these functions. The best option is a motherboard costing 4-5 thousand rubles, ATX form factor with an 8pin processor power connector and 4 memory module connectors, as well as 5-6 connectors for connecting sound devices.
7) Power supplies - The biggest misconception about power supplies is that more watts is better. Nothing like this! There will be no difference between a 65 and 1500 watt PSU for your system, if it is built on one processor and one video card. The power supply must be selected based on the consumption of the system. The most powerful video card cannot consume more than 350 watts, the processor, no more than 250 (rare specimens, overclocked, without overclocking, powerful CPUs eat about 80-100 watts), everything else consumes about 70 watts. Therefore, for systems around 30000r, 500-550 "watts" is enough, for powerful PCs, with one video card, "for overclocking", 650 watts, and for the rest, it depends on the number of video cards, but the rule is simple - +1 video card = +300 watts.
8) Do not forget about cooling systems, if the processor is overclocked, then you need to choose a processor "cooler" based on tests, the most optimal option, for example Coolermaster S200. If the processor is not chasing, then you can choose a simpler cooler, up to 500 rubles, according to reviews on the same Yandex market.

This is how components are selected somehow, and now I will give 3 examples of decent assemblies with a certain price category, these assemblies are intended only for games and do not meet certain requirements, but this does not mean that they cannot, say, be engaged in work, or rendering / audio processing. Also keep in mind that theoretically it is possible to select even more optimal components, but for this you need to start from stores and the presence of certain components in them, these components are selected in one store that delivers goods throughout Russia and has its own representative offices in many cities. (prices are taken from one popular store, its name cannot be indicated according to the rules of chips).

And so here are 3 configurations from me:
The configurations themselves with links to the store:
30.000Р:
Processor (CPU) - AMD Athlon X4 860K Black Edition, OEM 4170r
CPU Cooler - Cooler Master S200
Motherboard - ASUS A88XM-A 3340r
RAM - DIMM DDR3 1600Mhz 8GB Hynix Original 3750r

Video card - MSI R9 270 GAMING 2G, R9 270, 2048MB, GDDR5, Retail 9430r
Housing - InWin IW-EAR007 500W4290r
Total - 30300r
This configuration has a price within 30000r and is designed to replace game consoles, it can play all modern and planned games at settings close to high. If you have money, then you should replace the motherboard with an AM3 + with an AMD970 chipset, for example from MSI and replace the processor with an AMD FX-8300, it will cost about 3-3.5 thousand rubles, but it will be worth it.

55.000Р, video timecode 15:55:
Processor (CPU) - Intel Core i5-4590, OEM 13860r
CPU cooler - Cooler Master CP6-9HDSA-0L-GP 530r
Motherboard - ASUS B85M-G 3640r

Hard drive - 1TB, Seagate SV 35.5, ST1000VX000 3750r
Video card - Palit PA-GTX970 JetStream 4G, GTX 970, 4096MB, GDDR5, Retail 22170r
Housing - InWin IW-EAR007 4290r
Total - 52310r
This system unit is designed for high and ultra settings in all modern games, like the previous system unit, it has exactly the same case, with a built-in 500 watt power supply, mATX motherboard, the same 1TB hard drive. But this configuration is not designed for overclocking, at least the processor, and the power of the video card and processor allow you to play all games comfortably.

80.000R:
Processor (CPU) - Intel Core i5-4690K, OEM 16620r
CPU cooler - Cooler Master S200 940r
Motherboard - MSI Z97S SLI KRAIT EDITION 7520r
RAM - DIMM DDR3, 8GB (2x4GB), Kingston HyperX FURY blue, HX316C10FK2/8 3970r
SSD - SSD 128GB, Plextor M6S, PX-128M6S 4500r
Hard drive - 1TB, Seagate SV 35.5, ST1000VX000 3750r
Video card - MSI GTX 980 GAMING 4G, GTX 980, 4096MB, GDDR5, Retail 33450r
Case - Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-01, CC-9011050-WW 3790r
Power Supply - ATX Corsair CX 750, CP-9020015-EU, 750W 5930r
Total - 80470r

This system unit is at the forefront of technology. The motherboard with SLI support, overclockable processor, power supply and case are designed to install two video cards, and the existing video card is pre-top and gives consistently high FPS in all games. This configuration is intended for a narrow circle of people who crave high FPS and juicy pictures.

Of course, not everything is matched perfectly, but it is possible to select ideally only for a specific person and his tasks.

That's all, I hope you enjoyed reading this ton of text and it will be useful to you. And remember - in no case, do not buy ready-made computers, they cost you more and work much worse. In the modern world, there are shops where you will be collected and helped in the selection of components for the system!