This guide is somewhat outdated. I will begin work on an updated one and publish it in the near future.

Intro

So, you've finally decided that your computer is older than dirt, and need a new one. You've figured that building a computer is your best bet at getting the most bang for your buck. But, how exactly do you build a computer? What parts should you choose? Should you get an AMD or Intel processor? How powerful of a video card do you need? I won't go into too much detail in the actual construction, however lower down I will embed a nice video I found that will teach you how to successfully build a computer -- Intel- or AMD-centered.

Intel or AMD?

This is one of the most influential decisions in building a computer. It's like Ohio during a US election. What you choose here will determine how most of the rest of your system will turn out. Intel and AMD CPUs are very similar in terms of performance, with benchmarks showing that Intel CPUs perform better, albeit not by much. AMD CPUs are the bread and butter for budget builds. They have a great price-to-performance ratio. However, they require more power to deliver the same performance an Intel CPU can deliver, so in the long run it may end up biting you in the butt in electric bills later on. Intel CPUs are what many businesses prefer to use. They're efficient and powerful, but the price-to-performance ratio wards off many low-budget builders. I've grown up around solely Intel CPUs, from the old Pentium II and earlier, up to the latest i7s, and I know for a fact that Intel CPUs are built very well and just keep chugging on. I recently helped my brother build an AMD computer (because that's what he could afford), and I'm hoping Advanced Micro Devices's processors can compete with the track record Intel has set out. If you've used AMD CPUs in the past and they've been fantastic, let me know in the comments.

Memory (RAM)

Figuring out how much RAM you need is another important part in building a good computer. Most modern games require less than 2 GB of RAM to operate optimally, so you can easily get away with 4 GB. However, as I've learned, working with 4 GB of RAM can be very limiting, especially when you want to multitask with things like Skype, a Minecraft client, an SSH client, an FTP client, iTunes, etc. 4 GB of RAM simply won't cut it without your system taking a performance hit as it begins to rely more on the system page file (a file on the hard disk that is used for extra memory). So, it is my strong suggestion that you get at least 8 GB of RAM. 6 GB is a very adequate amount, but it's more expensive to upgrade in the future as more RAM slots will be taken up (3 x 2 GB or 1 x 4 GB + 1 x 2 GB as opposed to 2 x 4 GB or 1 x 8 GB). If in the end you have some extra money to spend, get 16 GB. That will be 8 GB you won't need to buy later on.

RAM speed isn't very important, so long as you don't get slow RAM. Getting at least 1600 MHz RAM will be more than good enough, but if you can afford it, consider 1866 or even 2133 MHz RAM. The performance difference between different RAM speeds is negligible (single-digit framerate changes), so if you have at least 1600 MHz RAM, you'll be fine.

Storage

You don't want to spend too much and get more storage space than you'll ever need, but you don't want to underspend and not get enough storage either. You also want to buy a storage disk that is fast at reading/writing data. In the storage market, there are two main types of storage: hard disk drives (HDDs), and solid-state drives (SSDs).

SSDs are incredibly fast at transferring data, however their price per GB leaves a lot to be desired. The price of SSDs has been steadily declining since they came out, but currently they still cost on average 10 times more per GB than normal HDDs. Another downside is the limited number of read/write cycles they can perform, although this number is huge (10,000 to 100,000 cycles).

Hard disk drives are the mass-storage solution. They can hold tremendous amounts of data, they're durable (SSDs are as well), they last much longer than SSDs if treated properly, and they're cheap. A 1 TB hard drive can cost as little as $50 these days. However, HDDs can't hold a candle to the speeds that SSDs are capable of.

These days you could probably get away with a 500 GB hard drive if you don't plan on downloading much. However, if you use Steam and have a lot of Steam games, you will probably want at the very least 750 GB. Getting a 1 or 2 TB hard drive will last you a long while, unless of course you do video editing, in which case you should look towards 2 TB+.

Graphics Card

This is the part of the gaming computer that everyone stresses needs to be the most powerful unit in your system. Some even say to spend an upwards of half your budget on the graphics card alone, and use the rest to get, well, the entire rest of the computer. People who say these things are right, to a point.

Modern graphics cards you will find on your search for the right one for you can have varying memory amounts, clock speeds, and core counts. And, each of these three characteristics is important. You want a graphics card with fast memory, and enough memory plus some extra, so you can use it for a long while. You want one that has a lot of cores so it can simulate an explosion going off in the rain, launching individual shrapnel pieces everywhere, in the middle of a battle, with hundreds of soldiers firing their 9001 RPM machine guns. You want one with a high clock speed so that it can do all of these things at a pace of several hundred million calculations per second (maybe even a billion per second).

I won't go into too much detail in which graphics card you should choose, because most of the ones out there are more than good enough for a game like Minecraft, but if you want a great card, look for one that has at least 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, has a minimum of 512 cores, and has a clock speed of at least 800 MHz.

Here's a little something I observed:

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 (2 GB GDDR5, 1.07 GHz clock, 960 cores, circa 2012) -- plays Minecraft at a bare minimum of 250 FPS (typically over 350) with the max settings when paired with an Intel i7-4770K and 8 GB of 1866 MHz RAM
- NVIDIA QuadroFX 3700 (512 MB GDDR3, 500 MHz clock, 128 cores, circa 2008) -- plays Minecraft at around 100 FPS on max settings, tested on almost identical hardware and at the same in-game location

As you can see, Minecraft is not a very resource-intense game as many seem to think it is.

Oh, and a note on screen refresh rates: it doesn't matter if your computer monitor can only display 60/75/120 of those 300 frames per second. If your computer has a higher refresh rate than your monitor, then that means that your computer is powerful enough to last you years without needing a GPU/CPU upgrade. People who say that you don't need a CPU/GPU that can display X game at more than 60/75/120 FPS are simply wasting the builder's money in the long run.

Other, less important parts

The rest of your build is truly up to you. Getting a motherboard that of course supports your type of CPU and RAM is essential, and so is getting a power supply with at least 80+ efficiency (500 W should be more than enough to power your single-video-card, multiple-drive computer). Make sure the case looks nice and is designed for the type of motherboard you decide to use (ATX, ITX, mATX, etc.). Monitors, keyboards, mice, and speakers are not really important to a gaming machine, as this old PS/2 keyboard and Dell optical mouse I'm using right now are more than enough to get a 30:0 kill/death ratio in capture the flag. If you feel the need to get a huge 1440p monitor and a gaming mouse and keyboard, do so. Just remember that there is a line at which the price to performance ratio shoots up like a rocket, and you're paying way too much for not much improvement over the last price bracket.

PC-Building Video