Modern video games offer a fidelity, resolution, and quality that is starting to almost rival a cinematic experience and they require more processing and computing power than ever before. Understanding what to look for and what to prioritise for your next computer build when you’re buying a system for gaming is important to ensure you get the best experience. Here are the five things you should prioritise spending your money on.
The Processor
The processor is an important part of the system. In any other computer that isn’t used for gaming, it would be the most expensive part of it. It’s the brain of the system, responsible for doing the heavy lifting in making the system work, and ultimately determines the speed of the computer. In gaming, the processor often plays a smaller role in the performance of games outside of the loading and launching times of the games, but that doesn’t mean you can go too cheap. Opt for a mid-range processor, like those offered in mini Lenovo PCs for gaming.
The Amount of Memory
You can almost never have too much memory in your computer. It provides very fast temporary storage for your game’s files and the files needed for the computer to operate, and the more you have, the more the computer can store for ultra-fast recall and the better and more streamlined the whole experience will be. For a modern gaming PC, 16 or 32GB of RAM is recommended.
A Good Solid-State Drive
The solid-state drive is a massive evolution of the regular moving spindle drive as it’s much quicker to access information on than its aging counterpart. Getting a good solid-state drive that is big enough to store your games and operating system on is a must if you’re building a gaming system. Avoid the spindle hard drive at all costs. If you store other media that can take up a lot of disc space, then having a secondary spindle hard drive might be worthwhile to save some money.
Your Graphics Card
The graphics card is the real workhorse in a gaming computer because it is responsible for generating and rendering all those fantastically detailed three-dimensional landscapes, levels, characters, and enemies in your video games. In a gaming PC, they’re also the component in the computer you’ll want to spend the most on, which won’t be difficult as they are a very expensive part of the system. The big brands in graphics cards are NVidia and AMD, and both offer a range of products that will meet most budgets. Just remember – the more you spend on this piece of hardware, the better your experience will be, just don’t be unrealistic about your expectations or needs.
With the best graphics card that you can afford and a system with plenty of memory and storage, you’ll be enjoying your favorite video games for years to come at great framerates and quality. Spend some extra time shopping around for the best deals and you’ll have a system that is the envy of your friends.
