Q. Hey I'm mark and I want to make a gaming computer, I have NO idea on where to start but my step brother is going to help me out once I got all the parts I need. Now I only have a budget of $600 or so to make a good gaming computer from scratch. I need to know, What to get, Where to get it, And if it can run on windows 7 64-bit. And also could I take my current computers hard drive and move it into my new computer, it has 500gb of memory max.
A. My first gaming computer cost about $920, and it can still run just about everything on max settings. With hardware prices coming down so far, you could probably build an ok system for near $600, you just need to know where to get your parts. Having the hard drive already helps a lot. newegg.com has never done me wrong. Great prices and very well organized site with a trustworthy rating system. Click "shop all stores" and go into "computer hardware", then find all of the individual parts that you need.
To build a gaming computer you need the following:
Motherboard
Processor + heatsync
Power Supply
RAM
Hard Drive
Disk Drive
Graphics Card
Case
-I've built computers in the past around processors. For a Gaming computer I recommend at least a 3 core processor at 2.8ghz+. The processor and the graphics card are the two parts you should spend the most on. A processor will almost always come with a heat sync, but if you want to overclock your processor you may want to add a custom cooling unit (I do not generally recommend this). If you wish to run either mac or Linux on your computer along with windows, I recommend an Intel processor, but if you only want to run windows, I recommend AMD. The only real benefit you would have in spending more on an Intel would be compatibility with Unix based OSs, which are useless for gaming.
-Next, I find a motherboard that has the appropriate processor socket that lists support for your processor Wattage and type. There are usually too many components to a motherboard to be too specific, but just make sure it's compatible with what you need and has a good rating for its price.
- You may find a motherboard you like and choose RAM to go with it, or find RAM and choose a motherboard that is compatible with your processor. The higher the number of the ram's DDR, the faster it'll go. Standard at this point is now DDR3, but some computer run as fast as DDR5 or more. For a gaming computer I recommend no less than 6GB of RAM, but for most games RAM requirement is not very high.
- The Graphics card is the most crucial bottleneck of your gaming computer. They're very complicated and have many specs. You will probably spend more on the card than on your processor. My graphics card is 1GB 256bit DDR3 NVidia with 700MHz core clock speed and I'm able to run most new games on max graphics settings. Normally you can trust the reviews of how good a card is, but you'll generally get what you pay for. Just make sure you have the right PCI port to run the card you choose. Also make sure you get one with the outputs you need, HDMI, VGA, or DVI.
- Power supplies can be complicated, but newegg has a great feature that calculates the wattage you'll need for your computer. It's under "Computer Hardware", the last option on the far right, "Power Supply Wattage Calculator". Fill out the info, get your wattage, find a high rated power supply with that wattage. easy-peasy
- Don't spend too much on a case, just make sure your stuff will fit. parts are usually the right size, you just need the right number of ports for hard drives and disk drives. If you have an existing case you want to use, go for it.
- Get a disk drive, a burner might be nice, not a big deal.
- As far as the hard drive goes, just format the drive to wipe all the data and it shouldn't give you too many problems. You might have to find a SATA cable to hook it up to a new motherboard if you don't have one.
- Most new hardware will just run 64 bit by default, but you'll want to verify that your processor will run it. If it's 3 cores or more, it probably will.
Good luck!
what type of memory do computer games use?
Q. hi,
Ok, so I was downloading a game yesterday from steam and it said 130 MB/1.2 GB and I was wondering if that would use RAM or what? I have 4 GB of RAM on my pc so does that mean I'm going to run out of memory if I download say 3 or 4 more games? how does it work and how do I know how much memory I have left?
thanks =].
A. Let me clear things up here... Your computer has 2 places where game data is stored... RAM (Random Access Memory) & the HDD (Hard Disk Drive).
RAM, which is short for Random Access Memory, is the temporary work space there active applications stores data so it can be quickly accessed by the processor (as it's right by the processor in your computer, so the data is asks for is there in nanoseconds [1 nanosecond = 0.0001 milliseconds = 0.000000001 seconds). You only need RAM when you want to run programs (like games) on your system. RAM is temporary storage as the RAM gets wiped when you turn off your system. If you run out of RAM, you generally can't run any more programs on your computer until you close some active programs to free up the space.
HOWEVER, modern computers have a little memory cheat called "Virtual RAM" (which is also called the "Page File") where the OS sends off running, but inactive / idle programs out of RAM & onto a designated part of the HDD to free up space for the next program that you're trying to run until that program gets attention ... where the OS brings that program's data back into RAM & throws other programs on the page file (on the HDD) in it's place.
Usage of "Virtual RAM" or the Page File is generally discouraged by many power users. While it does allow you run more programs than what your system would normally be allowed to, it does seriously slow down your system when stuff gets frequently transfer between RAM & the Page File, sometime to the point where the system seems to be frozen (which is a highly undesirable state that's considered as "Thrashing").
The Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is the place where ALL the program data is stored for more persistent & long-term as data is retained even while the power is off on the PC. HDD's are slower storage (varies between a few milliseconds to a couple of seconds, depending on the amount of data that needs transfering) as it's a considerable distance from the RAM & processor, but more stable. HDD space is critical as if you run out of HDD space, you can't store anything more on your computer until you delete stuff. Generally having LESS than 10% of your HDD space free can negatively impact system performance... so it's something that you want to avoid, if possible.
Now that you're educated on the difference between RAM & HDD... The figures you were looking at were for HDD space, as the game you were download is requiring 1.2 GB's of HDD space. Once downloaded, that game may require between 1 - 2 GB's of RAM to play it (unless it's a large, recent release... which may require all 4 GB's).
1.2 GB's of HDD space is considerable but relatively small as most computers generally have around 500 GB - 2 TB (~2000 GB) of storage space, so it would take about 0.24 - 0.06% of the total HDD's available space. Just be aware that some PC games can take up as much as 20 GB's of HDD space... so use that as a guideline, you could store around 22 - 95 games on your system (these are only estimates as I have to allocate some space for the OS, which is why the numbers are LESS than expected), depending on the actual amount of space available
Based on my current installed library on Steam (I don't have all my games installed by choice), I'm using 70 GB's over 25 games... so I'm averaging around 2.8 GB / game, just to provide a more realistic guideline here.
Hope this sheds some light on the subject & educate you on the finer points of computers.
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