According to some of the current announcements, 2018 is going to be a huge year for the video game industry. Early on, we can expect to see the long-awaited Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Monster Hunter: World, as well as the controversial Far Cry 5. However, is your PC ready for these massive installments? Even if your current setup may be able to run them on low or medium quality, this is hardly good enough, seeing as how such moderate ambitions may rob you of your gaming experience. With this in mind, here are a few things you should do to prepare your PC for the upcoming year.
1. Start by checking the requirements
One of the most common myths in the gaming world is that you need an i7 for gaming. Therefore, before you even start looking up and ordering parts online, you better check the requirements of the games you want to play. According to most AAA game recommendation requirements, Core i5-7600T 2.8GHz is more than enough to run games (at least for the next two years). Aside from that, you will also need 12 to 16 GB of RAM memory and a suitable GPU.
Here, the opinions are divided based on what you are aiming at. Still, with GeForce GTX 1060 and its AMD counterpart Radeon R9 280X you shouldn’t have any trouble playing games that will come out in 2018. For games that will come out in 2019, you might want to step up to GeForce 780 Ti or Radeon HD 7970. Either way, keep in mind that one year is a short time span in the gaming industry and that spending a bit more to prepare your PC for the long run might be worth your while.
2. Peripherals count as well
Aside from working on the specifications of your PC alone, you need to make sure your peripherals are up to the task. Investing in a quality monitor or, better yet, upgrading to a dual-monitor system might make a huge difference in your gaming experience. For instance, this could make it easier for you to keep an eye on your social media profiles while gaming or even provide you with a handy way of following a walkthrough.
On the other hand, some gamers find a dual-monitor system to be a bit restrictive, making them lean stronger towards getting a laptop as a backup. Here, taking a gaming laptop as a backup might be a great idea.
On top of it all, purchasing a gaming mouse and a high-end keyboard could provide you with a significant edge, especially if you are playing competitively online. Those who live in a household with others will also find it necessary to think about getting a quality headset. Finally, once your setup is complete, you might want to look for the right PC case gear as the last piece of the puzzle. With this, you will go one step further than just building a gaming PC and creating yourself a true gaming den.
3. Think about VR
At the end, one of the things that every gamer needed to consider in 2018 is the aspect of VR. Keep in mind, though, that this goes much deeper than just picking whether to buy Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. You have to make your PC capable of supporting these devices to their full potential. While components listed in the first section are more than up to this task, there are some other things you need to keep in mind. For instance, Rift requires one USB2.0 slot and three USB3.0s, which is surprisingly easy to forget. Aside from this, it might also be worth your while to invest in an SSD, just in case.
Conclusion
If we had to pinpoint the main culprit that prevents people from making their own PC setups, we would have to put lack of self-confidence to the forefront. Even people who already owned half a dozen PCs might still fear that they would oversee something or do something wrong. However, this is unlikely to happen with the right preparation and an adequate amount of research. The guides that can be found online are quite numerous and the community on websites such as Reddit and Quora is more than willing to help those who feel stuck. While there is a lot of work ahead, the perks of pulling such a thing off are more than worth all the effort invested.
