Many years ago I used to take apart and put together personal computers. However, it was not for gaming purposes.

The last machine that I ‘plug-and-play’ put together was back in 2007. I imagine a lot has changed since then.

My sons want a Windows gaming PC for this upcoming Christmas season.

Would it be more cost effective to purchase all the components and build a tower or purchase a prebuilt machine?

Also, I’m not looking for a high-end machine. Something in the middle should work fine since they aren’t hardcore gamers.

  • suspendedOP
    2·
    2 years ago

    Intel’s integrated graphics, and AMD’s APUs have gotten powerful enough that I have not used a dedicated GPU since ~2017.

    Would you, please, give me a little more information about both of those and how to track them down?

    • Jeffrey
      6·
      2 years ago

      AMD’s APU, and Intel’s UHD graphics are marketing terms for integrated graphics processors. It just means that the CPU has a built-in GPU.

      When purchasing components, or choosing a prebuilt system, you can simply select a CPU that has “integrated graphics”.

      Even a modest graphics card will drastically out perform any integrated graphics chip, but if your sons are not playing hardcore resource intensive games then you can save a lot of money not buying a GPU. You can also always purchase a GPU later for a birthday / next Christmas to enable them to play more intensive games.