Gaming PC config April 2016

In February we had an article about choosing PC configuration for gamers, but back then we didn’t have VR headsets released and DX12 games delivered to the market.

Let’s see what has changed in these two months and build up a new up-to-date PC config.

Last time we chose Intel Core i5 – 6600 as the processor and we continue to recommend it. That’s true that Intel is getting ready to release a new set of processors based on Broadwell-E technology, but they will be released only in June and experts do not predict significant performance improvement with these processors. So buying a Core i5 based on Skylake technology will guarantee you at least 2 years of good gaming experience.

The motherboard for this processor should be compliant with Socket LGA1151 based on Intel Z170 chipset http://amzn.to/1SZCFGT.  In February we have chosen Asus H170 Pro Gaming and do not see any reason to change our mind. Very descent choice for $200, but if you have extra few hundred dollars you can get a really kick-ass motherboard Asus ROG Maximus VIII Extreme/Assembly – even looking at the picture you can understand that this thing is not for a regular gamer, but for pros.

Next thing we need for our computer is RAM, and here we would go with 16GB or 32GB DDR4 in comparison with our previous choice between 8GB and 16GB.  Telling the truth, playing Tom Clancy’s The Division I felt that my 8GB is not enough sometimes. And if 16GB would cover all the needs of this game, next year I will need to add another 16GB to cope with the new games’ requirements.

One of the most important things for the gaming PC is a graphic card, and we still choose Nvidia GeForce GTX970, however if you decided to buy a VR headset, we would recommend to buy the senior card in the line – GeForce 980Ti.

However, talking about graphic cards, you should know that there are rumors about the new series of Nvidia graphic cards to be presented this summer. If that’s true, you might decide to wait till June, as we expect to hear about brand new devices on E3 – 2016.

Another thing we need for smooth gaming is a good SSD drive, and this time I would stick to 480GBsolid disk drive as I really doubt that your gaming PC is bought for one computer game only and with current games’ sizes – 250GB is not an option anymore. At least my 250GB drive is almost full. So I would stick to Kingston Hyper X Fury drive in here.

The last two things for your computer would be a power supply giving out some 600-650W and a case. I can’t recommend a case for you, as this thing is quite personal – some people prefer fancy design and customization, but power supply is very important in our case and I would choose something like EVGA 650 GS .

Now let’s summarize what we have this time.

So my total is $1214.95 – gaming isn’t cheap nowadays. Now add few hundreds to buy a new display, plus some $800 for a VR headset. Not cheap at all.

However, this summer we will see new processors and new graphic cards, so it is possible that hardware of the current generation will lose their prices a bit.