What you Need to set up a Gaming Computer

Sandton, November, 03, 2021 – Buying a gaming PC involves a significant investment. Therefore, you should take your time to familiarise yourself with what is needed by doing in-depth research on items such as graphics cards, storage capacities, RAM and so on. Once you have an idea of what you need, you can start looking around for pricing to suit your budget.

These are the Minimum Gaming Computer Specs you will Require

If you are a beginner gamer, Westech – a professional IT services company in South Africa, advises that a good baseline of minimum specifications to look for is as follows.

You should investigate a Central Processing Unit (CPU) such as an AMD Ryzen 3 or Intel Core i3.
The Random Access Memory (RAM) should have at least 16GB of RAM available.
You may want to consider a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) such as the AMD Radeon 5700 or Nvidia GeForce 1660 Super for your graphics card.
It is important to note that the above specs are purely minimum and will not allow you to memory-intensive games at high quality.

How to Select a Gaming Central Processing Unit

Firstly, let us say from the outset that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Gaming computers come in all shapes and sizes. Smaller systems are ideal for gamers who lack space but bear in mind that a smaller, and cheaper system, may limit any upgrades you would like to make or need to make in the future. Also, you may find that some smaller systems are noisier due to the minimised space for the cooling fan.

The larger systems known as full towers are at the opposite spectrum and often won’t fit on or even under a desk. Mid-towers are generally a good balance between the smaller and larger systems due to their size and noise factors but will be more expensive than smaller systems.

You will need to consider how you will be using your gaming system in terms of preferring portability or a desktop experience. Once you know this, you will need to understand how clocking speed and a core count factor will affect your gaming experience.

How Much Random Access Memory (RAM) Will you Require for Your Gaming Needs?

RAM temporarily stores information that your computer requires, thereby enabling an improvement in system responsiveness. Once you open a programme, the Operating System (OS) stores it in RAM and clears it when you shut down your machine again. A symptom of having insufficient RAM on your computer will result in your computer slowing down extensively if too many programmes are opened or if your game is too memory intensive. This will also lead to pixelated images.

A dedicated video card has its own RAM, called vRAM and is focused on sending graphics to your display. This is ideal for playing games at high resolutions of 4K.

What is a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)?

A GPU is a specialised processor that allows for the fast processing of a lot of data simultaneously. Besides being helpful in gaming applications, GPU’s are also useful for video editing and machine learning.

The above fundamentals should provide some pointers in the right direction, but if you are still unsure, contact a Westech technician for advice on tailored specifications and a free quotation on your new gaming pc.