Question about building a gaming computer

[Jred]

I am doing a research project for my class and have gotten permission to ask people for their input. My topic is on building a gaming system which includes the thought process and parts that go into making one. Anyone is welcome to reply and put their input in as it would be very helpful.

Theoretically I am building a gamming computer that can also be to create animation shows. The following are questions that I would like to have answered.
1. What is the first thing that I should think about before looking for parts for the computers?

2. What are the major components for a gaming system and what part do you look for first?

3. What are currently the best brands for building a gaming system and why? (This is matter of opinion)

4. If I had $1500 to spend on buying parts for a gaming system where would I begin? (Or what would I possibly buy?)

Thank you all for taking the time to look at this and for any and all replys.

[David M]

1. What is the first thing that I should think about before looking for parts for the computers?

The way to approach building a computer is to first ask yourself, What is the purpose of this computer? The purpose of a computer is to run software and to store information. So you then have to ask yourself, which applications do I plan on running and how much data do I need to store? The answers to these two questions largely determines what hardware you need.

Other questions that determine your hardware is, What is my budget? How reliable does my hardware need to be? How fast does my computer need to run my applications? How fast does it need to access data?

2. What are the major components for a gaming system and what part do you look for first?

All the components matter. If one fails to function then the whole computer might fail to function. What matters most for gaming is the graphics card.

3. What are currently the best brands for building a gaming system and why? (This is matter of opinion)

Actually, it's not just an opinion. There are some brands that typically produce some real garbage and then there are some brands that usually produce some really good hardware. If you look around the threads, you will see which components from which companies are typically recommended on this forum.

There are as many opinions as there are people. But if you ask the experts, the opinions on what is best starts narrowing significantly. Nothing beats experience on what is best, or worse.

Khalil's company has built thousands of custom computers. Because of this, his opinions are quite accurate.
Look here for Khalil's guide to the best computer hardware brands.

4. If I had $1500 to spend on buying parts for a gaming system where would I begin? (Or what would I possibly buy?)

Since this is a hypothetical computer and you have not stated all of the computers purposes, then I recommend that you look in the category Build Your Own PC. Here you will see a variety of computers for different purposes at different prices.
http://www.pcmech.com/forum/build-your-own-pc/

[glc]

1. Budget!

2. For a gaming system, you need to decide on a video card first. This is the single most important component. Now, if you also need to create animations, you need a lot of ram and a fast processor, probably a quad core.

3. Well, there are only 2 brands of CPU's - AMD and Intel. For the rest of the components, check out this link and this link. Now, in my opinion, the best hard drive brand is Western Digital, and the best optical drive brands are Asus, Sony, LG, and Lite-On.

4. $1500 is quite doable. What you need for a computer is as follows:

Case
Power supply
Motherboard
Ram
Video card
Hard drive/drives
Optical drive (probably a DVD burner)
Monitor/monitors
Keyboard
Mouse
Operating system

The $1500 figure, to get a balanced system, would allow about $250 for a video card and $200 for a CPU.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Originally Posted by Jred 1. What is the first thing that I should think about before looking for parts for the computers? 2. What are the major components for a gaming system and what part do you look for first?

1. Budget.

2. Video card, and then motherboard. You never skimp on the motherboard. If you're on a tight budget it's better to go with a slightly less powerful videocard in order to get a quality mobo.