Assembling a PC by parts may seem like an easy task, but if you want the components to be according to your needs and also to fit your budget, it is not so much. For this reason, many times you have to make the decision to invest more in some PC components to the detriment of others, so in this article we are going to tell you which components you should invest more money in and which you can afford to skimp on after the first.
Always keeping a maximum budget in mind, the most important decision you must make initially is what you are going to use the PC for, because it is not the same to choose the components for a gaming PC than for one to work with certain professional applications, to put a example. In any case, and always taking into account the compatibility between all the components, we are going to see in which it will be better to invest more money in order to achieve the best possible performance in a gaming PC in this case.
What components to spend more money on for a gaming PC
If your goal when assembling your new PC is gaming, then the component in which you should invest more money is undoubtedly the graphics card , since the performance in games will depend on it to be able to enjoy a good resolution, rate of FPS and graphic details. When choosing the graphics model you need, you will have to take into account the resolution at which you intend to play, obviously.
If in your case the team intends to use it to work in 3D applications, then the graph is also an important point to take into account, and you may even have to resort to professional graphics. If, on the other hand, you are going to mount the PC for general use, then the graphics will not be so important to you.
The second component in which you should invest more money is the processor , since after the graphics card it will be the most important part of a gaming PC and if you do not have a powerful enough processor you could have to deal with bottlenecks. For example, it wouldn’t make sense to spend the money that an RTX 3090 is worth if your processor is a Core i5-2500K, both for the performance of the processor and the PCI-Express interface on the motherboard.
And this brings us to the third most important component, the motherboard . This is where all the equipment connects, from the processor to the graphics card, through peripherals and storage devices. Therefore, while it is true that it is also a component in which it can be skimped to a certain extent, you must make sure not only that it is compatible with the rest of the hardware (or rather that the rest of the hardware is compatible with it ), but has all the technologies that you intend to use such as the PCI-Express version, M.2 sockets for storage, USB, etc.
The fourth component in which you should consider investing more money is the power supply , the heart of the computer and responsible for supplying power to all your hardware. Having a power supply not only with the power and wiring necessary for the rest of the hardware, but also with good efficiency and protections to keep the hardware safe is always a very good investment that, in addition, will help reduce the electricity bill .
What hardware is better to skimp on to save money?
As we said at the beginning, when you are assembling a PC by parts and you have a maximum budget closed, if you want to invest in improving some components of the PC many times you will be forced to skimp on others to compensate. So, which components should you spend less money on so that the overall performance and quality of the equipment is not affected too much?
Initially, most users will think of spending less on the case, source, heatsink, or motherboard; here are our recommendations in this regard.
The first thing we would tell you is that you can save money on the storage unit. While it is true that an SSD is a must today for a gaming PC, you may not need the latest 2 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD that has been released and whose price is almost prohibitive. For gaming, there really isn’t an excessive difference between using a SATA 3 or an NVMe SSD (there is a difference, and it is remarkable, but if you have to skimp on something, you have to make some sacrifices). You can also consider simply choosing an SSD with less capacity to lower costs.
The second component that you could save yourself some money on is the motherboard . You may not need the latest model of motherboard, with huge overclocking capabilities and compatible with configurations of a lot of graphics cards if you are not going to use it. Choosing a good motherboard is important, but remember that you can save a good deal of money by cutting out some features that you may not be using.
The third component, and although it is still vitally important for us, is the box . All the hardware that we are going to install in the gaming PC as well as its cooling will depend on the box, and it is important that it be of good quality and with good cooling for the good performance of the equipment. You should simply review the models that match the hardware you are going to mount and compare the prices; Maybe you don’t need a case with a tempered glass side or RGB lighting when you have them much cheaper without these things and they will give you the same performance. As always, if you want to save, you have to consider making a sacrifice.
The fourth component to skimp on to save money would be the heatsink . Obviously we will always recommend a third-party heatsink over the one that Intel and AMD have as standard, and obviously we will always recommend a heatsink that delivers better performance, but again we return to the issue of making sacrifices. You just might have to choose one of the great over-the-air heatsinks out there for around $ 50 instead of the latest $ 150 liquid cooler.
Finally, we come to RAM. Today 16 GB of RAM is the standard in a gaming PC, but they are one of those PC components whose price varies greatly depending on the manufacturer and speed. If you have to skimp on RAM, we do not recommend doing so in terms of its capacity but in terms of its speed, because 3200 MHz DDR4 kits will give you a very worthy performance and the price difference with the same 4000 MHz kits is absimal. .