This article is not even written to help you assemble a computer at home, but rather not to run into a retailer that does not offer optimal gaming computers.
Why do our PC kits often differ from other gaming computer retailers? As computer gamers, we know that the most important component in a gaming computer should be the graphics card. For this reason, we design assemblies with the most powerful graphics card in a given price range, and we assemble other components so that they do not degrade its performance at the total price of the computer. A large percentage of retailers probably have no idea about the more accurate performance of graphics cards or worse, they are consciously trying to sell a "gaming" computer with less gaming performance than the customer usually imagines.
What is their reason for this? Compared to other components, a powerful graphics card is a very expensive component, which, in addition to its increasing performance, also requires a more powerful and expensive source. The average customer usually does not read the real performance of the graphics card, so it is more commercially advantageous to offer cheaper processors with many cores and high frequencies or powerful Intel I5 and I7 processors, along with many GB of RAM and large hard disk, where values and capacities can The layman judges in the opinion - a higher number is simply better.
The processor performance is not as different for individual models and can be used in practice as the performance of various graphics cards.
Recently, those interested have come across non-optimally tuned sets and should follow these tips:
1. Focus primarily on the performance of the graphics card and a specific model from a specific manufacturer, which may differ in both performance and operating characteristics (noise).
2. If you have a more limited budget, it is always more advantageous to invest in components that need to change than in those that you just need to add gradually. You can buy an SSD, a larger HDD, more Ram memory or even the worst better CPU cooler at any time later and you don't have to invest in them at the expense of a more powerful graphics card, processor or equipped motherboard.
3. When comparing the prices of PC sets, it is necessary to compare the same or qualitatively comparable components
How to select / design / build game computer / computers
Computer price:
The price levels of honest reports can be simply characterized as follows:
set up to approx. CZK 10,000 - cannot be considered a real gaming computer.
set up to CZK 14,000 - you will play all the games, but you cannot expect high and often not even medium settings for demanding games.
composition approx. CZK 15,000 - you will play everything at least at medium and sometimes at high settings.
composition approx. CZK 20,000 - playing most games at high sometimes even maximum settings.
composition approx. CZK 25,000 - playing games always in high and even maximum settings.
composition approx. CZK 30,000 - for playing all the most demanding games in maximum settings.
composition from about 40,000 CZK - for playing all the most demanding games in maximum settings and high resolutions with a perspective for the future.
Processor
More cores - always more power? …… .. NOT quite so !!!!! This is especially true for 6 to 8 core AMD vs 4-core processors from Intel, which are usually more powerful despite the smaller number of cores.
They have more threads per core and thus provide higher performance where there is no software support for 4 or more cores. Intel processors are more powerful on average (mainly for the I5 and I7 models), but not always clearly more advantageous. Due to the price, the AMD processor is sufficient for playing games in cheaper segments, for example, a 4-core AMD RYZEN 3 1200, which is cheaper than 2-core Intely I3, could be recommended for a cheaper segment. In modern games and in the future, its 2 cores (albeit multi-threaded) may be limiting. For more expensive processors, we recommend Intel I5 series processors and, if you want the maximum, I7. A good option is a slightly cheaper AMD RYZEN 5 processors with 4 and 6 cores and the same number of threads. One of our favorites for mid-range assemblies is the AMDRYZEN 5 1600. In practice, the difference between AMD and Intel processors is that game programs that allow you to use more cores and processor threads, so AMD is advantageous and on the other hand, if there are no extra cores used is a more powerful Intel processor. Intely generally has better performance per processor core.
Advantages of Intel processors - more balanced power and power per core, higher clocking limits.
Advantages of AMD processors - cheaper and using all cores will be more powerful (which is not the rule) than the competition from Intel, the ability to clock all models, usually cheaper motherboards with the same equipment.
Motherboard: There is no need to choose the most expensive models for the motherboard, but if you are tempted to the cheapest ones, you have to take into account certain restrictions. You can only support lower speeds for components, the board will have fewer slots for RAM, disks and additional components.
Furthermore, you may not be able to digitally connect a 5.1 speaker or you will have a lack of USB ports. Support for SATA3 and USB 3.0, fast M.2 SSDs or new processors is also suitable for the future. There are also smaller differences in the individual versions of the chipset and board classes (improved timing options), but in addition to the most powerful assemblies or planning a higher timing, a middle class board will suffice. We can divide it roughly so that the board should be for about 10% (+ - hundred crowns) of the total amount for the whole assembly. It is not necessary to have a board equipped for everything, but with the rising price of other components, the computer should be equipped with a corresponding motherboard. The basic equipment of today's boards also includes an integrated network and sound card. GIGABYTE, ASUS, MSI boards can be recommended.
RAM:
In current games, it is not necessary to have 16GB of RAM in the PC in sets up to about 20,000. When playing the most modern games, even 8Gb is sufficient. Therefore, it is good to compare the performance of other components. Even the basic 2133Mhz is fast enough. We recommend choosing faster 2400Mhz memories for a small surcharge (simply effective mainly with Intel processors thanks to the so-called XMP profiles), but you will hardly notice the difference and also check the support of faster memories on the motherboard. Where high frequency is known, this is the case in combination with AMD RYZEN processors (especially the more powerful ones), where we recommend 2666Mzh and faster memories. . The last value you might have in mind is memory latency (eg CL13, CL15). This is also relatively important and a smaller number is more powerful, ie. that eg CL13 is better than CL15 or CL16.
Grafic card: The gaming computer DOES NOT mean that there is any additional graphics card in the set. The biggest problem with some offers is the almost false indication of the suitability of the set on offer, such as "gaming". The graphics card is the basis of the game set and should usually be the most expensive component in a PC. Therefore, in the vast majority of offers, the computer is equipped with a weaker / cheaper graphics card and the vendors rely on the ignorance of customers. So how do you know if the offered graphics card is suitable according to your ideas? For quick reference, we have prepared a chart of the performance of gaming graphics cards, which you will find at the beginning of this article or you can look at online magazines about hardware.
Are Nvidia graphics cards better than ATI / AMD cards today? ENÍ NOT TRUE !!! This myth is a remnant of a relatively long time ago, when ATi graphics cards suffered from out-of-tune drivers. At present, of course, there are sometimes temporary unfinished work in the drivers, but now both manufacturers have nothing to blame and occasional problems occur on both sides. In some price ranges, AMD / ATi Radeon is more advantageous, other times both graphics cards are comparable and it is more of a sympathy for the brand. The differences may be in different versions of the same cards from different manufacturers (Gigabyte, Asus, MSI,…, etc.), which differ mainly in the equipped heat sink and equipment.
At present, graphics such as the Nvidia GTX 1050 and 1060 have very low power consumption and less heating and sometimes noise, but AMD's competition (RX 570 and 580) at similar prices has slightly worse performance, but often at the highest resolutions. so performance does not fail in the most demanding scenes and may have a greater perspective on future challenging games.
It is up to everyone whether he prefers the operational characteristics or the theoretical perspective in performance.
How much RAM is necessary to have on the graphics card?… .. for now there is a minimum of 2GB, an optimum of 3-4GB, for the future and for the most demanding games 6-8GB.
Sound card: For most users, an integrated sound card on the motherboard is enough to sound the computer. You just have to think about whether you will connect only stereo or 2.1 speakers or you have or are planning 5.1 speakers (7.1). For some motherboards, you will find only 3 audio outputs to which you do not connect a 5.1 speaker.
There are also some differences in the integrated sound cards, and higher versions of chipsets usually have a higher quality integrated sound card. However, it is not worth paying extra for a better record just because of the soundtrack.
If you have a high-quality speaker for listening to music, we recommend paying extra for an additional sound card at prices from approximately CZK 1,000 upwards. With cheap sound cards, the difference compared to integrated ones is very small.
Hard disk: Everyone can choose the capacity of the hard disk according to their needs, but 1000Gb of space is usually enough to store data and if you require more space, 2TB disks can be purchased for a decent price, but we would recommend buying another separate hard or external 1TB disk. It is good not to depend on only 1 HDD, imagine that you will lose 2 TB of data in case of failure. This way we can talk about smaller disks, it is also about the number and types of files. If you want a large disk to store many large files (such as movies in Blue ray quality), you can purchase a 2TB HDD, but we do not recommend purchasing a large disk to slowly store small files over several years. We would definitely recommend the 7200 rpm models for the system drive. The 5400 rpm models can be used as storage drives for PC or NAS systems. Their advantage is lower consumption and theoretically longer service life under long-term load.
A separate chapter is SSDs, which do not pay off in terms of capacity / price, but the agility of the system (especially when booting) you can see at a glance. We recommend combining an SSD disk for the operating system and a classic HDD for data storage.
You can also find a hybrid between an SSD and a classic HDD on the market. With this type of SSHD, which is actually a classic HDD, where an additional fast access swap space is set up, on which the most frequently run files are stored, thus speeding up their loading. This solution is not as powerful and fast as a classic SSD, but the difference from a classic HDD is familiar.
Whether to add extra to the classic HDD to SSD disk, where its entire capacity is fast or just a small amount to replace instead of HDD hybrid SSHD with less space for the most used files + classic HDD capacity, then it depends on expectations, needs and financial possibilities each user.
For some time now, we can also select variants of SSD disks directly into the M.2 slots on the motherboard, where this connection has a higher theoretical transfer rate. There is a bit of a problem in their higher price and in the cheaper ones there is not noticeably higher performance than with classic sata SSD disks. On the other hand, with the M.2 SSD you save the connection of the power and data cable, it is only a card inserted in the motherboard, but of course it must have an M.2 slot for the disks.
Computer case: Computer cabinets basically differ only in appearance? OM .OMYL. The choice of a computer case is very underestimated, which can end in an unpleasant surprise. In the picture, the seemingly expensive case can actually be a super-cheap and shiny box with faint resonant sheets and minimal cooling options, which will not even fit a more powerful graphics card. Therefore, we advise the customer to choose not only according to appearance, but also take into account other important features of the PC case. Choose cabinets roughly so that they cost 5% and more from the price of the whole set.
Source: The more watts, the better? …… NOT quite. For PC power supplies, we recommend focusing on the gross need for performance and then mainly the brand and experience with it. High power in watts at a low price may not be a bargain. An ideal example is the APPROX power supply with a seemingly beautiful 500-550W, which is half the price, what else is better with a power of 400W and so the extremely low price must of course affect the quality. In our offers from approx. 10000, - we use proven SEASONIC, FORTRON and Corsair sources, with which we have many years of experience and have an above-standard warranty of 36 or even 60 months. For power supplies, we basically recommend that it is not good to buy the cheapest models with high wattage, but on the contrary, it is not necessary to buy a power supply that would be more expensive than a well-selected motherboard. Especially for the most powerful assemblies, you can choose high-performance models with high efficiency around 90% (maximized energy usage and minimizing residual heat) and removable cables, for better layout inside the cabinet. However, graphics card manufacturers usually report higher wattage than might be better with higher quality power supplies, due to customers buying the cheapest power supplies.
Cooling: Due to the fact that a poorly cooled set can have a significantly shortened service life, we recommend focusing on this very underestimated issue. First of all, we need to point out the cooling of the processor. In the basic configuration, we offer a heatsink, which is part of the package with the processor. Although it is sufficient for basic cooling, it does not excel in silence or cooling performance. If you do not choose from computers below 10,000, or you do not have a heatsink from an older PC at home, we recommend paying for a more powerful and quieter model (eg SilentiumPC Fera 3). We recommend a better heatsink especially for AMD processors (for 8 core ones for sure), which have basic heatsinks a bit noisier and have higher heating. For Intel, it is advisable to pay extra for models with an open multiplier for clocking (marked “K”) or to minimize noise. In connection with the selection of the cabinet, a "draft" should be created from front to back inside. This allows fans that on the one hand suck in cold air and on the other hand blow heated air out of the cabinet. For this, you need to focus on cabinets that allow proper front suction, which also cools the HDD. You can buy additional (usually 12 cm) fans from us for 120, - / pc or even later according to your own experience and requirements. If you want the noise of the set, you can choose from soundproof cabinets (eg Fractal design Define R5). Keep in mind, however, that maximum cooling does not go hand in hand with minimum noise. You have to focus on this or that side of things, but the ideal compromise is slightly tuned to the cooling or quiet side, according to the requirements of each customer and the conditions in which the computer operates.
Monitor and accessories:
At today's monitor prices, we can usually think of sizes 22 ″, 23 ″, 24 ″ and 27 ″. In terms of price, 22 ″ and 24 ″ monitors are about 1000 CZK away, which is not much and every user will certainly appreciate the larger screen. The most common resolution is 1920 x 1080 px (fullHD), which is today's standard for all the above diagonals. The size of the monitor could be compared to other accessories (keyboard, mouse, speaker,…), if you do not know better, worse will suffice. The quality of today's monitors at "popular" prices does not differ by as much as the price difference would ever suggest, so you can easily concentrate for lower use in lower price ranges and you will probably be satisfied. IPS and PLS panels have slightly better image quality properties. Classic older TN panels, in turn, often have a better response. If you play fast online lockers, models with a refresh rate of 120 or 144Hz can also benefit (others have 60Hz or 75Hz), but you will hardly find such monitors up to 6000. AMD and Nvidia graphics card manufacturers also have advanced technologies that monitor manufacturers incorporate into their models, and in compatibility with the corresponding graphics card, this will make the display more fluid. At AMD, the technology is called FreeSync, at Nvidia GSYNC. Monitors are available for FreeSync from about 3500, -, there are many more on the market and you will not find the cheapest GSYNC monitor under 10000, -. You can notice the various equipment and connection options for the monitors. We would recommend choosing a model with at least a digital DVI connection and a newer HDMI or DisplayPort monitor. The HDMI connector may be useful for connecting other devices (game consoles, set-top boxes, etc.). Nowadays, it is becoming more accessible to connect 3 monitors to a computer and play or work in 5760 x 1080px resolution. Of course, this large display area needs a fairly powerful graphics card to play, such as at least the Radeon RX580 8GB or Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB or better the Nvidia GTX 1070 and 1080. You can also plug 3 monitors into cheaper graphics cards, but you will have to reduce a lot for more demanding games image quality. Another specialty is wide and curved monitors in a resolution of 3440 × 1440, or cheaper 2560 × 1080, so such a slightly narrower, but frameless variant of connecting three monitors.
You can choose accessories such as a keyboard and mouse from a large number of models according to your own needs and price options. Even for the less demanding, however, we recommend (especially with a mouse) to choose from models from at least CZK 400. Again, I don't know better, worse is enough, but a few hundred crowns can separate you from far better properties, which you will certainly appreciate.
QUESTIONS for reports:
If you have selected several sets and you do not know which one to buy, we will objectively advise you and point out the differences, even if they will not be presented by our store and we will offer an alternative from us.
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