Once again, PC gaming is rapidly growing in popularity, with many avid players deciding to buy or build their own gaming PC so that they can enjoy all of their favourite titles in high quality. Building or buying your first gaming PC can be quite a complex and even confusing process, with manufacturers using jargon-like terms such as DirectX, Shader Model 5, GDDR5, liquid cooling and SLI. However, unless you’re a tech genius, the best way to choose the right gaming PC for you is to take into consideration your needs and requirements from the purchase.

What You Play

When choosing a gaming PC or getting together the parts to build one yourself, take into consideration the kind of games that you enjoy playing the most. If you’re a massive fan of playing modern, first-person shooter games, for example, the graphics hardware of the PC will become a higher priority over other factors, for example CPU performance. On the other hand, if you’re obsessed with turn-based war games, you will need to opt for a PC which has a fast CPU in order to process the AI as quickly as possible. Real-time strategy games will usually require an even balance between graphics and CPU.

PC Memory

One of the biggest factors which you will need to take into consideration when choosing a gaming PC is how much memory you will need it to have. For avid gamers who are serious about gaming and plan to download a lot of hard copy games to the PC’s hard drive, it will be essential to have a huge amount of memory and RAM in order to keep the PC running smoothly. On the other hand, for those who want to use their gaming PC much like a regular PC and simply play the odd online game, a lesser amount will be needed. If you’re unsure, you can always turn to Offtek to upgrade your PC’s memory or RAM.

Graphics and Your Display

Once you have figured out the types of games which you will be playing on your PC the most, you should consider the GPU. Even in titles which are quite CPU-heavy, graphics are a hugely important part of gaming. Because of this, it’s absolutely vital to make sure that you make buying the best possible graphics card within your budget a priority. As a general rule of thumb, you should be aiming to spend around one third of the total cost of the PC on your graphics card alone. However, it’s important to take other factors into consideration when choosing your GPU. One of the most important things to keep in mind is your PC monitor, as the monitor screen quality will have a direct effect on how well your graphics card works.

Choosing a new gaming PC or selecting parts to build your own can be a really exciting experience for avid gamers. But, buying or building the best machine for your needs can be confusing. Make sure that you take all the above into consideration before parting with your money.