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Building a new computer questions from a noob
Hey everybody, a year ago i sold my gaming laptop which i have been a pc gamer for many years but decided to slow down on MMOs due to having a new daughter and decided just to get a PS4 to play more casually. I really miss playing on a PC/laptop especially the graphics are so much better but i have always wanted to build my own desktop but i have zero knowledge on how to build one and afraid i would mess it all up with my very limited computer knowlege. So a couple questions?
1. If i decided to go with a nvidia 980 or maybe 970 for now, what price point would i be looking at to build a solid gaming rig with everything included?
2. I have heard in the past that its not good to hook up your PC to your TV to use as a monitor but i would actually prefer to do this. I normally play at night before going bed so i enjoy the comfort of it. So is this an ok idea now or is it still not a good idea? Assuming something technology in the past made it not recommended.
3. Are most PC games able to use controllers? of course some i would prefer the mouse and keyboard but some controller.
4. How hard would it honestly be for somebody with such limited computer knowledge to build one and get everything working correctly?
Thanks for your help
1. If i decided to go with a nvidia 980 or maybe 970 for now, what price point would i be looking at to build a solid gaming rig with everything included?
2. I have heard in the past that its not good to hook up your PC to your TV to use as a monitor but i would actually prefer to do this. I normally play at night before going bed so i enjoy the comfort of it. So is this an ok idea now or is it still not a good idea? Assuming something technology in the past made it not recommended.
3. Are most PC games able to use controllers? of course some i would prefer the mouse and keyboard but some controller.
4. How hard would it honestly be for somebody with such limited computer knowledge to build one and get everything working correctly?
Thanks for your help
Comments
2. You CAN play on a TV.. biggest drawback for me would be response time. gaming Monitors are very fast but TVs usually not so much. Would cause blurring.. but maybe the newest models address that
3. Most games will let you change your input devices but since they aren't DESIGNED for a game controller it could be awkward. Depends on the game and the UI
4. Pretty easy. Biggest issue would be applying thermal paste on the CPU and heatsink but you can watch a video before you do it.
Edited $1000 ($100 typo)
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2. Computer monitors are built for low display latency, while televisions often aren't. If a TV systematically delays displaying the incoming signal by 100 ms, that's irrelevant to watching television, but a huge problem for games. It's not likely to be as high as 100 ms latency on a TV, but it's probably going to be higher than a monitor.
3. You could play just about any game with a gamepad. But many games are very awkward to the extent that you wouldn't want to. Anything relying heavily on clicking quickly and precisely with a mouse is going to be very rough. Anything more keyboard-friendly will probably be fine, as you can get software to map gamepad buttons to keyboard keys. You'll need combinations of buttons for a lot of games. I personally use a gamepad for most thing, but grab a mouse to navigate menus sometimes.
4. Can you figure out how to put a round peg in a round hole and a square peg in a square hole, as opposed to the other way around? Most things in a computer have different shapes for different connectors, so you really can't screw it up unless you try to force something where it doesn't fit. You may neglect to plug something in, in which case, the computer doesn't turn on until you fix it, but that doesn't damage anything.
You'll also need to be able to handle a screwdriver. There are physical impairments that would prevent some people from properly assembling a computer (e.g., blindness, missing a hand, etc.), but most people could do it fine.
The harder part if you want to do everything on your own is knowing what parts to buy. But you can get help with that here. Given a budget, I could pick out reasonable parts for you.
2) I am sitting at my desk using an LED TV as a monitor as we speak. My backup gaming computer is hooked to the big screen LED in the living room - I also use it as my cable box. Modern flat screen TVs make excellent monitors. Make sure your TV is 1080p so you get the most out of your games!
3) XBox controllers (all types) are plug and play with Win7 or newer. I am pretty sure Playstation controllers work too, although you may need to download drivers to make them work properly.
4) When you are ready to start, get a laptop with a webcam and cam with a friend that has built computers before. They can walk you through all the steps, and if they can see what you are doing, they can help you avoid common errors. My first computer build took 2 1/2 hours, mostly because I was sweating from anxiety so much I kept having beads of sweat fall on the motherboard! Now I can build a computer in under a half hour while talking with my sister and watching a TV show. Yes, I have done that!
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
If you are going to run Win10, then I would suggest getting an AMD A-10 CPU. It has a very powerful GPU built on, and that 970 TI will work with the onboard video with any games that are taking advantage of DX12, which should be just about all games released in 2016 or later. Video is much more important than your CPU for gaming, so take advantage of that good built on video.
Also, invest in an SSD. Those make a HUGE difference with games, since the swap file is operating at memory speed. When I was playing DC Universe, I added an SSD and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could advance my graphics settings from 2nd highest to highest, and the only change I made was the SSD.
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
Go down to best buy and put your hands on the keyboards to see which ones you like best. I prefer ergonomic 'wave' keyboards myself, I would never buy anything but. Logitech and Microsoft both make top notch boards, I'm using a Microsoft ergonomic 4000 wired one right now.
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
However, having built a new PC with a GTX 970 last winter, I decided a few weeks ago to make use of its UHD capabilities and to swap my 1080p TV for a 48 inch 4K Samsung curved screen TV. I picked the Samsung for its HDMI 2 support and very fast input response times for its price bracket. I'm currently playing Fallout 4 at 3840 x 2160 resolution, 60 Hz refresh rate and the game is set to high detail. That's getting between 30 - 40 FPS which is fine for me. I could switch to 1920 x 1080 at Ultra detail if I wanted and probably get around 60 FPS but I'm happy with it as is.
So, any 1080p TV should be OK for 1920 x 1080 gaming but if you have a 4K TV, be aware not all of them can be pushed beyond that for ultra high definition gaming. You need to carefully check the specifications. Whichever type of TV you have, make sure the HDMI input you use for connecting the PC is set to "Gaming"
@flguy14
If you are serious, I suggest you check out http://pcpartpicker.com/ browse the forums and look over other peoples builds. There is some very informative info there.
There are numerous builds based on different budgets, also the moderators have featured guides, also based on various budgets here http://pcpartpicker.com/guide/
Good luck.
Support for mixing such wildly different GPUs is going to be very limited. Even if it worked flawlessly, having an integrated GPU gobbling up your system memory bandwidth could slow the CPU considerably, to the degree that it on net made games run slower. And then you'd give up a bunch of CPU performance just because AMD's CPU cores are so much slower than Intel's on a per core basis.
I am an Intel fan. I'm running an i5 quad core in my desktop system right now, and my laptop has an i7 quad. But after reading the test results I see that you can get really great performance increases by mixing two or more GPUs (that are DX11 or better) in a system with a game that supports DX12. So to get this kind of increases on a low budget, using the A-10 with R7 graphics combined with a GTX970 Ti will be a powerhouse for DX12.
While CPU performance is important, it is not as important for gaming as GPU performance. I've seen that plainly over the last 20 or so years of building gaming desktops, over 200 at last count.
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!