Looking To Build A Small But Powerful Gaming Desktop Computer?

Well first, look at AMD vs Intel. Intel provides faster processors, but they are much more expensive, and they often can't be upgraded. AMD processors usually get more power for your money, and they are upgradable. Currently AMD is using the AM3+ socket, which means if you buy an AM3+ motherboard you can use any new AM3+ processor that AMD makes (as long as it can meet the wattage). Next, look at at how many cores you need. AMD makes 8 core processors but not very many games will use all 8 of those cores, so getting a ton of cores doesn't help you much unless your game can use multi-threading. Often a 2 or 4 core processor is faster per-core than a 6 or 8 core processor. Use benchmarks to find out what processors are faster than others. Lots of people say go with the higher GHz or more cores, but that is usually not true. Only benchmarks will tell you what is fastest. Same with video cards, you need to look up their benchmarks to see which ones are actually best for you. With RAM I really don't see how a person can use more than 8GB right now, unless you like to run four games at a time. An average 32 bit program can't use more than 2GB of RAM at a time anyway. With your power supply you need to find out what parts you have then calculate your usage. Don't get a power supply that barely meets your needs, it will burn out quickly. Lots of people go with a small SSD to install windows and their slowest games on, then get a second hard drive to put the faster, older games on. An ssd cuts your game load and save time to a fraction of what a regular HDD needs. Personally I think Newegg.com is the best website for sorting and searching for parts. I always use their website when planning new computer parts. Brand doesn't seem to matter much with computer parts because even among brands they have failures. It's most important to look at reviews for the individual parts. I usually try to go for 5 star rated parts from Sewegg because those are the parts you know will last the longest.

Microcenter or Fry's are the two best electronic stores that I know of. You should have one near you. The first step to building a gaming computer is to choose your processor and graphics card. I'm a fan of AMD products for the most part. They are usually a lot more power for your dollar, but intel processors do pack a bit more of a punch. They are just pricey. I don't know your budget, but you can get an idea by going to http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ The GTX 750 is the best graphics card for your dollar at $120. But it's a mid tier card. I wouldn't call it powerful. The 750Ti is a slight step up from that, at $140. If you are willing to go up to $200 you should go with the Radeon R9 270 or 270X. The GTX 760 is also a decent option. With those you'll be running anything you want on the highest settings. I believe all of those processors use a PCI E socket. That's pretty standard for modern GPUs, but it doesn't hurt you to make sure. As a side note, I tend to prefer the Radeon cards. Only reason being, is I am an AMD purist, and those are produced by AMD. Nvidia is just as good, so by all means get one if you like it. You can use the same website to choose a processor. The best one under $300 is the AMD FX-9370 Eight-Core. Those go for $220 ish. Honestly, it's a bit overkill. It's a badass processor. One of AMD's best. If you want to keep it closer to $100 the Intel Xeon X5550 @ 2.67GHz or AMD FX-4300 Quad-Core is the most cost effective ones I know of. The only intel that breaks the "intel is expensive rule". Check which socket the processors use before you pick one. The intel is Socket: LGA1366, and the AMD socket for both cards is AM3+. Typically, you will want to match up your processor and GPU, so if you go with the GTX 750 card or similar, you may as well pick the cheaper processors too. With graphics the GPU and CPU work together. So whichever one is weaker will bottleneck the faster one, that's why you'll go with similar ones. The same goes for the faster ones. So the real question is, do you want to spend $250, or $450? Next you'll choose the motherboard, get one that has the sockets for the graphics card and the processor. If you aren't experienced in building computers make sure to follow the instructions. There are tons of sensitive components on the motherboard, that if shorted, will destroy it. Don't work on carpet, ground yourself to something. Be careful. Both Fry's and Microcenter will put it together for you if you aren't confident. Make sure the motherboard has DDR3 RAM slots. Because you're getting DDR3, that's a no brainer. Same price as DDR2, twice as effective. 8 GB is the most you really need, 6 is adequate, 4 is minimum. Do what you want, I reccomend getting larger cards (2 x 4GB cards for 8GB rather than 4 x 2GB cards. Leave space for future upgrades) I like to get same size cards as well. Don't use 1 4GB card and 1 2GB card. Choose whatever hard drive you want. They run up to 7200 RPMs, that's the better one. Lower is slower. Solid state is better, but it is expensive as ****. More than it's worth in my opinion, I don't use it yet. I have 1 TB drive, I wouldn't reccomend going lower than a TB, because games keep getting bigger and bigger. I have ones that require over 60 GB of space, so it goes fast. Disc drive, get whatever you want. The disc drive and the hard drive are probably both SATA III, but there's nothing wrong with 39 or 40 Pin IDE cables if your motherboard supports it. My disc drive burns DVDs and can inscribe an image on the top of it. It was expensive though. Finally, power supply. Add up the consumption of power of all of your parts, and get a power supply that can support all of it at a minimum. My best guess is that a 500W would be pretty safe for you. Or 600W, there's no harm in going higher and PSUs are cheap. Almost forgot, the case. If all your **** fits, it'll be fine. Get whatever you want. Some have cool features, mine glows red. Whatever is fine though, a case only makes it look cool. Your stuff would all work the same even if you put it in a cardboard box with fans.