What to build a gaming computer from in 2018

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Optimal configurations of gaming PCs for different budgets and tips to help you avoid getting a damaged graphics card when buying hand-held.

2018 is not yet very favorable to fans of advanced computer hardware. The prices for RAM are growing, the cost of new processors from Intel is steadily high, and high-performance video cards are massively bought by miners. At the same time, solid-state drives, on the contrary, have fallen in price since January this year.

If you don't want to wait, you can start building a configuration that will delight you with new AAA projects right now.

What Steam says

The gaming platform Steam regularly collects data on the popularity of components from certain vendors among players.

CPU

Last year, AMD broke into the processor market with Ryzen, pushing out Intel. But Steam statistics show that over the past six months, AMD processors have seriously lost in popularity to Intel solutions.

AMD is significantly lowering prices for Ryzen processors in an effort to sell them off ahead of the next generation of Zen + processors due to hit stores in April. At the same time, Intel's new Coffee Lake generation processors are in no hurry to get cheaper.

So now there is a good chance to purchase a processor from AMD at a low price, which will be relevant in the next few years.

Video card

According to research by analysts Jon Peddie Research, AMD video cards won 33.7% of the market from NVIDIA. This is due to the cryptocurrency gold rush - AMD adapters are always popular with miners.

Through the efforts of cryptocurrency miners, AMD's productive graphics cards have almost disappeared from the shelves. This mainly applies to various versions of the Radeon RX adapters. And there is nothing to say about high-performance Radeon Vega. For ordinary users, this deficit is at least unpleasant.

The shortage of AMD graphics cards affected Steam statistics: currently 86% of user systems are equipped with NVIDIA adapters.

Traditionally, low-end solutions (Radeon RX 470/570), as well as mid-range devices (Radeon RX 480/580) are popular among AMD video cards. Choose them if you want to save money. If you are building a powerful gaming system, your choice is the more expensive adapters from NVIDIA (GeForce GTX 1070/1080/1080 Ti).

VR

Virtual reality helmets are very promising. But for now, they remain expensive and not particularly useful fun.

Oculus Rift almost equally divided the market with HTC Vive and even won 2% from it - for the first time in its history. Microsoft's new Windows Mixed Reality VR device has a 5% market share so far.

If you want to try on yourself the delights of virtual reality, keep in mind that this will cost you a pretty penny. You will not only pay 40-50 thousand rubles for a helmet, but you will also have to invest in upgrading your computer if it does not meet the recommended system requirements.

Configuration for Oculus Rift

• Processor: Intel i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
• Video card: NVIDIA GTX 970/1060 or AMD Radeon R9 290 / RX 480.
• RAM: 8 GB.
• Video Output: HDMI 1.3.
• USB: 3 USB 3.0 ports and 1 USB 2.0 port.

Configuration for HTC Vive

• Processor: Intel i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350.
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 480.
• RAM: 4 GB.
• Video Output: HDMI 1.4 or DisplayPort 1.2.
• USB: 1 x USB 2.0 port.

Configuration for Windows Mixed Reality

• Processor: Intel i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400
• Video card: NVIDIA GTX 960/1050 or AMD RX 460/560.
• RAM: 8 GB.
• Video Output: HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.2.
• USB: USB 3.0.

You can check the compatibility of your system with VR headsets by using the Compatibility Checker tools.

For Oculus Rift →

For HTC Vive →

System

Steam statistics show that Windows 7 is still popular with gamers. 68% of Steam users have 7 installed. Apparently, innovations from Microsoft do not find a positive response among gamers.

On the other hand, Windows 10 supports DirectX 12, so it's better not to delay with the update. Therefore, when assembling a new gaming system, it is better to give preference to the top ten.

Interestingly, the most common language among Steam users is Chinese, which is spoken by 63, 93% of players. Analysts attribute this to the growing popularity of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in Asia.

What you need to know if you buy a video card hand-held

Online marketplaces such as Avito are inundated with offers for the sale of used parts. This is largely due to cryptocurrency miners. Moreover, among them there are both seasoned miners and beginners who belatedly joined the general hobby and are now disillusioned with this business.

For the first, the iron worked non-stop and paid for itself long ago, having worn out the order. The second video cards were not really used, and now they are trying to minimize losses.

There is no definite answer to the question whether it is worth taking used iron. There are fierce discussions on the forums. Opponents of second-hand components are pushing for wear and tear of equipment and violation of the temperature regime. There are also enough of those who have grabbed an excellent video card for a cheap price and are now agitating to take components from their hands. Some people even believe that a video card that has been tested by hard work in a mining farm will withstand anything after that.

What to look for when buying a used video card

Damage to Gigabyte WF3 7950 after 16 months of mining

Taking used electronics is always a risk. If you still decide to save money, you should do the following:

• Check the documents on the video card. Please note the purchase date and warranty expiration dates. Refuse to purchase a video card without documents and packaging.
• Examine the video card for burnt or broken components, scratches and darkened PCB. Blackened or yellowed textolite is a sign of constant overheating of the video card. It can also signal that the owner of the dying video card was trying to reanimate it with a hairdryer. In this case, you must refuse to purchase.
• Check the cooling system. If the fans on the adapter are not native, this is a sign that the video card was mercilessly heated and the cooling was replaced before the sale.
• A graphics card that looks normal should be tested with heavy games and benchmarks. The proven FurMark will do. If this causes crashes or graphics artifacts, do not buy a video card.
• Run GPU-Z and make sure that the actual specifications of the video card match those indicated on the manufacturer's website.
• If you suspect that you were mining with a video card, run any miner on it, for example MultiMiner or NiceHash. If graphic artifacts appear during operation, it means that everything that is possible has already been squeezed out of this video card.

All these manipulations will not give a 100% guarantee of the card's performance. Be careful and don't trust suspicious sellers.

Assembling a gaming computer

Starting the assembly of a gaming system, you first of all have to decide whose processor and motherboard to use - AMD or Intel, and whose video card - AMD or NVIDIA. Components from them are roughly equivalent in performance. So be guided by prices and availability of certain parts in stores.

The presented configurations for different budgets will allow you to assemble the optimal machine for gaming. In the assemblies, the main components are indicated, excluding the periphery. Parts like chassis, power supply, and cooling are included in the budget but not mentioned separately.

Budget 35,000 rubles

This build will allow you to play most games in Full HD at medium graphics settings. A budget solution, but you will save a lot.

• Processor and motherboard: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 and AMD B350 or Intel Pentium G4600 and Intel H110 Express.
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 470.
• RAM: 1 × 8 GB DDR4-2400 / 2666.
• Storage: HDD, 1 TB.

Budget 60,000 rubles

The assembly is suitable for games in Full HD with high graphics settings. It won't need major upgrades in the next two years.

• Processor and motherboard: AMD Ryzen 5 1500X and AMD B350 or Intel Core i3-8100 and Intel Z370 Express.
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 480 Radeon RX 570/580.
• RAM: 2 × 8 GB DDR4-2400.
• Storage: HDD, 1 TB and SSD, 120 GB.

Budget 90,000 rubles

This system is capable of running games in Full HD at maximum graphics settings.

• Processor and motherboard: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X and AMD B350 or Intel Core i5-8400 and Intel Z370 Express.
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon RX 580.
• RAM: 2 × 8 GB DDR4-320.
• Storage: HDD, 1 TB and SSD, 120 GB or more.

Budget from 100,000 rubles

A configuration designed for WQHD gaming at high and maximum graphics settings.

• Processor and motherboard: AMD Ryzen 7 1700X and AMD B350 / X370 or Intel Core i7-8700 and Intel Z370 Express.
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti or AMD Radeon RX Vega 56.
• RAM: 2 × 8 GB DDR4-3200.
• Storage: HDD, 1 TB and SSD, 240 GB or more.

Budget from 170,000 rubles

A configuration for seasoned gamers capable of running any game in WQHD at maximum graphics settings.

• Processor and motherboard: AMD Ryzen 7 1700X and AMD X370 or Intel Core i7-8700K and Intel Z370 Express.
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.
• RAM: 2 × 16 GB DDR4-3000 / 3200.
• Storage: HDD, 1 TB and SSD, 250 GB or more.

You can create a more powerful system based on AMD Ryzen Threadripper or Intel Core i9-7900X. But this solution is for very advanced and obscenely wealthy gamers and developers. For ordinary users, such capacities are clearly redundant.

Naturally, solid state drives are significantly faster than HDDs. But the prices for them are higher, and the volumes of the SSD are inferior to the HDD purchased for the same money. So in the cheapest option, you can do without an SSD. In the future, you can buy a solid-state drive and get a performance upgrade by installing the system on it, increase RAM and replace the processor with a more efficient one.

Modern games take up a lot of space, one 120 GB SSD for the system and games will not be enough. If you have some money to spare, it's worth expanding your SSD storage.