How To Build A High-End Gaming PC For Under $2,000

How to Build a High-End Gaming PC For Under $2,000​

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Preparation

Before you begin, you need to decide what you want to buy. If you are reading this guide, it means that you want to buy a Desktop Gaming PC and you have at least $1950 to spend. This amount of money will get you an extremely fast and great computer.

What You Will Need

-$2000.00
-An ability to read instruction manuals
-A friend who has done this before (optional but helpful)
-The ability to handle the sickest computer you have ever seen (required --once finished )

The Parts

Case: You need a case that holds all the components of your computer.

Suggestion: Antec 1200 with 750 Watt Power Supply-$225.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...29063&cm_re=antec_1200-_-11-129-063-_-Product

This case, while looking cool, can easily fit all of the parts you need and cool them without a liquid cooling system. Its 200mm “Bad Boy” fan and two side fans can keep all of your parts cool and in working condition. The power supply is also very good, 1000W is just not necessary.

Processor: The processor is the brain of the computer; it is the part that computes.

Suggestion: Intel i7 Bloomfield 920 2.66GHz Quad Core-$260.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...202&cm_re=i7_processor-_-19-115-202-_-Product

This processor is one of the top current processors on the market, and it can easily handle the best current game (Crysis) at very high detail. If you want, you can also overclock this processor to over 4GHz without much cooling.

Hard Drive: The Hard Drive is where the long-term data of the computer is stored.

Suggestion: Western Digital 500 GB 7200RPM Caviar Black Hard Drive-$70.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0&cm_re=500GB_7200_rpm-_-22-136-320-_-Product

This Hard Drive has enough space to store all of your info (if not get a 1TB storage drive) and is fast enough to run all your games, for only $70!

Memory: The Memory helps run your computer and stores short term data.

Suggestion: OCZ Gold 6 GB (3x2 GB) 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM-$150.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...365&cm_re=ocz_gold_6gb-_-20-227-365-_-Product

This memory is extremely fast and has enough power to run any game on the highest detail!

Motherboard: The home of your computer, it holds all of the parts together.

Suggestion: EVGA X58 SLI-$200.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=EVGA_X58_i7_SLI-_-13-188-049-_-Product

This motherboard has room for all of the necessary parts of your computer, and runs everything every fast. In addition, its onboard sound is excellent.

Graphics Card: The card that put the image on the monitor and determines the quality of the image and the FPS (Frames Per Second).

Suggestion: HIS ATI HD5870 1GB-$450
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx? Item=N82E16814161340&cm_re=hd5870-_-14-161-340-_-Product
This graphics card has a whopping 1GB of on-board RAM and is currently the 3rd fastest consumer GFX card in the world!

Optical Drive: The CD drive for your computer.

Suggestion: ASUS 24x DVD+R-$25.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

This is a great standard optical drive for a good price.

Monitor: The screen of your computer.

Suggestion: ASUS 24 inch 2ms 20000:1 HD Widescreen-$220.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...236049&cm_re=24_in_2ms-_-24-236-049-_-Product

This screen is a beautiful 24 inch widescreen with only a 2 millisecond response time for intense gaming.

Keyboard: How you enter commands and the English language into your computer.

Suggestion: Razer Lycosa-$75.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...004&cm_re=razer_lycosa-_-23-114-004-_-Product

This sexy beast is the nicest looking keyboard out there, especially because its blue goes perfectly with the Antec 1200 case. The keys are also very soft and well spaced.

Mouse: What you use to move the pointer around the screen and click to navigate on your computer.

Suggestion: Razer Mamba-$130.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826153048&Tpk=razer mamba

This is currently the best gaming mouse on the market, enough said.

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And there you have it, your brand new gaming PC, for a total of $1805.00 plus shipping.

Building

While ordering parts does save you a lot of money, it also causes you the hassle of building your PC. While the Antec 1200 comes with a very good guide, let me just make a few suggestions on how to approach building your PC.


Tip 1
Keep away all static electricity! While static electricity does not affect us humans, as we are grounded, it will fry your computer parts and damage them for good.
Way to do this:
Keep the Parts (apart from the case) off of any rugs or blankets. Do not wear a sweater, and make sure that you are constantly touching the case to ground yourself so that you do not fry any of your parts.

Tip 2
Try to get a friend who has previously built a computer to come over and help you. I had an experienced friend help me on the first built, and it made it much easier.

Tip 3
Stay Calm. Do not try to force any parts into place. If you got the exact parts I mentioned above, all should fit into place. However, this is not always the case.

Expected Outcome
I built a PC with basically these specifications (put in an HD5970 instead because it's twice as powerful and has DX11 Support, but is very pricey). These are a few pictures of what the PC should look like once it is complete!

Picture of PC


Picture of Antec 1200 Front Fans


Picture of Antec 1200 200MM "Bad Boy" Fan
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If you need any more tips or advice, feel free to PM me, post here, or add my MSN.

Thank you for reading my guide. Please do not hesitate to post comments, approval, and constructive criticism.

 

great guide

 

Thanks, do you think pictures would help, or just complicate it?

 

Added Personal Pictures

 

Great guide, I built my own computer and it's not hard at all (Didn't get any help either ;P)

 

Nice job. Thanks for the input.

 

This guide is very informative. If I was to build a computer, i would surely use this. Maybe as a basis for another guide, or to add on this, maybe add how to build a PC for under $1,000?

 

Yes. I am writing my 5th UE App guide currently (on billiards). Then I have to do the 2nd part of my chess guide. THEN I will write one for under $1,000. Good suggestion and thanks for your feedback.

 

Well it seems more like a "these are the parts I got for my computer sort of not even a guide" but it's a good template for someone to use who has no idea what parts to go. Maybe write a little on how to put it together?

 

Actually, more than 1/2 the parts there are different than my computer. My computer just has the same case so it looks similar.

 

Your guide is misleading. You were supposed to teach people how to pick different parts, but instead you listed some parts and simply said, "Buy these, they're good." Different parts should be used for different resolution gaming.

 

great guide, thanks mate!!

 

great guide, thanks mate!!

 

no problem man!

 

you should add more options and show a rough guide on how to truly put it together


other then that i like your computer
i do have a question though why only 6gb of ram ? compared to like 8+ and what about operating system

 

OS I would go with Windows 7 64 bit. I didn't include software. My laptop has 8GB and my desktop 6GB; i actually see no difference in my gaming performance.

 

On topic - Great guide, and kick ass looking computer!

Slightly Off Topic - This is a bit of an ignorant question, but you sound like you know the answer.. How do you compare processors to one another? I'm honestly stumped when it comes to that one. Comparing other things, like HDD and RAM is stupidly easy/obvious, as the higher number is usually better, but I have no idea how to compare one processor to another.

 

Processors. First you're going by the number of cores. There's a 1 core, a dual core (2 cores), a quad core (4 cores), an octo-core (8 cores) expensive verrryyy expensive, and 12 core which has only been used a few times for overclocking

After you've got the number of cores (the more the better) you want to know the speed those cores run at. Its measured in gHz. The higher the number, the better. An average speed now-a-days would be like... 1.2 gHz? Correct me if I'm wrong anyone, I could be.

My CPU is pretty fast btw Quad Core.

Anyways, hope this helps.

 

if a cpu has more ghz then a other cpu it doesnt always mean its faster. Same with amount of cores. The best thing to do is search the internet for benchmark.

 

okay i wanted to do this but dont have $2000 atm