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Hey folks!
I'm READY! Been wanting to have an actual high-end gaming PC for, well, most of my adult life (I'm 39 now, a life-long gamer back to my TI-99/4A), and am ready to make it happen. I've built PCs for myself since high school, worked at a software/hardware testing lab after school, but it has been so long since I've actually built one from scratch (after college, I always just used whatever PC my job gave me), that I don't really know "what parts I need to go with other parts." I also like to hunt for deals (though I know you get what you pay for, and will gladly spend extra $$ for reliability)..
So, I'm planning on doing this as a gradual build as I find good deals on various components. It has been a while, so I'm in no hurry. First, I've read in various places that it's not really financially worth it to build your own any more.. that you can get pre-built gaming PCs cheaper than you can get the components separately.. is that true?
Second, assuming that's not true.. I think I just need a list of what I "must" have in order to build a gaming pc at this "snapshot" of a moment in time... e.g. Spring 2013... meaning stuff like..
Does my case need to be "ATX?" Do those still exist?
What types of slots does my motherboard need to have, say, to be able to have the fastest graphics card available today? PCI/e ? Not that I will buy the fastest card available today, just that I'd like to be able to upgrade to it down the road..
Do I need 3 graphics cards to run 3 monitors?
How can I guarantee my motherboard I buy separately will fit in the case I buy?
Is a quad core processor good enough for today's games? Assuming running my games at 1920x1080 at high detail, though I'm not disappointed if I have to go down from there.. just trying to give more details..
Does my motherboard need any type of cache on it?
If there are online resources I can look at for the above questions, please feel free to send me there! Or if there's a "good build" someone would recommend, that's cool too! I already have a 1600x1200 monitor which I might just stick with for now..
Sorry for the back to being a noob questions, but thank you and I look forward to doing this with your help!
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