Winter Is Coming Edition - 2015
Welcome to Guru3D's PC Buyer's Guide. An article that will show you example PC components combined of what we are comfortable with recommending to you. Please note that we'll only cover the "innards" of the PC itself. External peripheral devices like; monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, chassis, etc are not included for brevity's sake, as there is a huge range of them and personal choice can influence the purchasing of those items. Thus, by sticking to the "guts", you are free to chose whatever "body" you like. However, if you are in need of assistance, feel free to ask in our supportive forums.
Since this site is called "Guru3D", we will target a system primarily intended for gaming while not depriving you of your limb(s), kidney and some other organs ;) So here are the main criteria that we take into account when deciding what parts to recommend:
Since we have a global audience, we won't be directly linking to the price as that site may not be available in that country. Instead we we will list the component and its price in EURO so you can have a good starting point to tweak these recommendations to your specific needs. So, without further delay, our system recommendations are broken down into:
Name |
Type of PC build |
The Bit | This system is targeted towards those wanting the most bang for their bucks. Thus, the playable resolution that this system targets is 720p (HD). Since the budget is the primary limiting factor, you may need to sacrifice a little on the eye-candy and/or monitor resolution. |
The Nibble | This system is targeted towards mainstream gamers. Thus, the playable resolution would be 1080p (FHD). You can expect it to have a decent amount of eye candy turned on. |
The Byte | This system is any hardcore gamer's dream. Thus, with all eye candy turned on, the playable resolution would be at least 1080p (FHD) or preferably, 1440p (QHD). |
The Megabyte | This system isn't a recommendation per se but is more of a "conceptual" system that is possible with today's technology |
Those who are familiar with PC (Personal Computer) components can skip this section as it is a brief overview of PC related jargon meant to familiarize those who are venturing away from pre-built systems into custom build ones.
One thing that may not be obvious at first is that once you have selected the components, make sure that their isn't a significant bottleneck. In other words, you would not really drive a Formula F1 car on a dirt track since the ride would be anything but smooth. Thus, by making sure that you don't have any hardware bottleneck, your gaming experience would be much better. Here are some vivid examples to help you understand the effects of bottleneck:
Obviously Guru3D tends to think that all games should be played at the best IQ (Image Quality) possible. However, there's a dilemma, IQ impacts the performance of a graphics card. We measure this in FPS (Frames Per Second), the higher it is the more fluidly your game will render. In the table below, we breakdown the FPS into playing experience.
FPS (Average) |
Gameplay Experience |
Less than 30 FPS | Stutters/lag are frequent |
Between 30 to 40 FPS | Stuttering/lag are infrequent |
Between 40 To 60 FPS | Smooth gameplay with rare stutters |
Above 60 FPS | Buttery smooth gameplay |
Do note that if your FPS are low and you would like to increase them, here are two common methods at you can use:
The Folding@Home Project is a distributed computing project run by Stanford University. The F@H Project studies protein folding to uncover the mysteries of protein folding and fight diseases like Alzheimer's, Huntington's, various Cancers and more. If you would like to help the scientists out and take part in this noble cause, you can join our Guru3D team! Our team number is 69411 and here are two ways to contribute from your system:
For further questions or support, feel free to ask in our F@H forum.
Well folks, waiting for you on the next page is the affordable one, The Bit...