Gaming PC Build Guide for making YouTube Gaming Videos

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My Requirements

I wanted to play games at the highest possible in-game settings all turned on and turned up.  My goal is to represent games as the developer intended.  I am all about image quality, game immersion, and showing the game off with all the graphics features enabled and the game looking the best it can.  This includes Ray Tracing and other unique features.  This is sort of my thing; every game I play I want maxed out.  I play games, “as intended.” I want all this plus in a small case build, taking up the least amount of space possible.  Therefore, to achieve this I need some certain things from this build.

Targeting Resolution and FPS

I need to target a resolution and FPS level for this gaming system that the goal above can be achieved.  I determined that I wanted to aim for playing games at and recording games at 1440p (2560×1440) 60FPS on a native 1440p IPS display at 60Hz.  While 4K looks great in games, it is impossible to max out games with the highest in-game settings and run at a solid consistent 60FPS on today’s GPUs.  This may be possible in the next-gen cards, or the next-gen, but today, it is a bit out or range for recording video and at the same time playing smoothly at 60FPS.  Therefore, 1440p is the resolution I was aiming for.  At 1440p I could use a larger 32” display for a great viewing size to immerse me in the game. 

60FPS is also a great target because any game today is very smooth and fluid playing at 60FPS.  YouTube supports 60FPS framerates, in the past 30FPS would suffice, but not today.  60FPS provides smooth gameplay inside every game, each game will feel fluid.  To the viewer, 60FPS looks very nice and smooth.  Also, at 60FPS you are usually in-sync with your displays refresh rate which is commonly 60Hz to avoid tearing naturally.  I could have invested more in a 120Hz or 144Hz or even higher level of gaming display but the problem arises again of being able to maintain that framerate consistently at all times while recording the video and playing the game. 

Targeting a 1440p at 60FPS gameplay experience is perfect for people watching videos on YouTube on their PC, or mobile, or tablet.  Setting YouTube videos to play at 1440p also means a higher bitrate, so your videos will look better watching YouTube even if you are watching on a smaller display.  I will be recording my game video at 200mbps so I am providing very high bitrate videos.  It is also the perfect range for me to enjoy the games I am playing.  It also allows me to use a 32” IPS display and run it at the native resolution for clarity.

Targeting Build Size

My next requirement was that I wanted all this performance packed into an mATX (micro-ATX) form factor sized build.  I did not want an unyielding case size taking up a lot of room.  ATX or EATX is possible, with very large cases, and would of course work.  I, however, wanted to pack as much power as I could into a smaller case that could fit on my desk and not take up much room.  The aim was to use micro-ATX. 

I could have aimed for ITX, but ITX is actually a bit too small.  I wanted to also fit a full-sized AIB retail custom factory-overclocked GeForce RTX 2080 Ti into this build.  Therefore, it needed to be able to fit a full-sized graphics card, ITX just wouldn’t work.  I also wanted to keep everything very cool using an AIO to maximize boost clocks on CPU and have great airflow in the case for the GPU.  The best option was an mATX case and motherboard build.  It is a nice compact size on my desk that doesn’t take up a lot of room, yet packs a lot of gaming performance.

With These Goals in Mind

With these main goals and requirements in mind, let me walk you through my entire build by each component, showing pictures along the way.  I will have benchmarks of the computer following the pictures.  Please keep in mind that the components I have chosen for my build suite me personally.  These components are components I either already had in my home and scavenged for this build, or that I had to buy on my own to complete the build.  It is a combination of scavenged parts not in use, plus bought parts.  If you had to buy every single part shown here, this build would be more expensive than what I actually ended up paying for it.

Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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