Remember when your parents told you to stop playing games because you'll go blind, get scoliosis and become a vagabond? Also, that those video games are a waste of time and money. Well, anyone who ever got the "pep talk" from their parents can legitimately prove them wrong since eSports are a thing now. Team-based games such as Dota 2, League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch and many more are a prime example of eSports competition.
Tournaments are held worldwide and the prize pool amounts to millions of dollars. For instance, Dota 2 2017 tournament prize pool amounts to $22 million. "In your face Mom, I will make a living out of playing video games!" However, to even get a chance to compete at these tournaments you'll need to have exceptional skills. In order to hone your skills, you'll need a high-end PC machine to practice on each day. Here are a few tips on how to build a PC for professional eSports gaming.
Start with a casing
When picking the ideal casing, you need to decide between a mid tower and a full tower casing. Mid towers are more compact and best suited for air cooling, while full towers are larger and best suited for water cooling. For instance, Corsair Graphite 760T standing at $190 is a good example of full tower casing with three GPU slots and nine expansion slots, leaving enough room for water cooling.
Also,
Cooler Master's MasterCase Pro 5 standing at $170 is one of the best mid towers on the market. It has enough room for 360mm radiators and everything inside can be removed and adjusted using a screwdriver, which makes customization that much easier. This tower is designed for excellent airflow and it makes building into simple for both a newbie and a professional.
CPU
A central processing unit (CPU), or simply a processor, is the core of your machine - literally. In order to ensure high performance, you'll need to pick the right one. The market leader and one of the best CPUs when it comes to performance is definitely Intel Core i7-7700K with 4.2GHz, 4 cores and 8 threads, and it costs around $300.
Their main competition, AMD Ryzen 1800x with 3.6GHz, 8 cores and 16 threads, is a bit more expensive costing around $419 but
still can’t compare to the i7 even though it has more cores. The i7 simply has a faster base frequency and a faster clock frequency at 4.5GHz which is something you definitely want in a gaming PC.
GPU
A graphics processing unit (GPU) is the most important aspect in gaming. Along with a CPU and RAM (random-access memory) it affects your overall frames per second (FPS) which is essential for any gaming experience, not just eSports. If you want to get the best out of your video card, Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti is the
undisputed champion, for now.
The GTX 1080 Ti packs a whooping 11GB of VRAM DDR5X and is available at an also whooping price of $700. The price tag may seem daunting, but even one of its predecessors the GTX 980 Ti costs $560 and has 6GB of VRAM DDR5X. So, paying a bit extra to get the highest performance is definitely worth it.
Motherboard
A motherboard binds everything together and without it the rest of your hardware is useless. When picking the right motherboard you must consider hardware compatibility. For instance, a motherboard must be compatible with the CPU, meaning it needs to have an appropriate socket to house the CPU. Also, it needs the correct PCIe slot to house the GPU.
As an example, EVGA motherboards are designed for Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs, which makes them the best option if you're
building an Intel desktop. They also look amazing, by the way. EVGA Z270 Classified K has an Intel Z270 Chipset which supports a Core i7 CPU and costs $300. Another great motherboard is Asus Maximus Hero IX with a Z270 Chipset and it costs around $200. Most of the latest motherboards have PCIe 3.0 slots that accommodate high-end GPUs.
RAM
Random-access memory is one of the most essential components and it helps speed up your PC. You'll need between 8 and 32GB of RAM, with 16GB as recommended, for an awesome performance. Prices and manufacturers differ on the market. For example, you can go all out and get G.SKILL's Ripjaws 4 DDR4 2400 C14 8x16GB for a $1000, HyperX Fury DDR4 4x8GB for $245, Corsair's Vengeance LPX DDR4 4x4GB for $140 and Fury DD4 2x4 GB for $75.
Additional components
To finish your eSports rig you'll need some additional stuff to make everything perfect. The most important ones are a power supply unit (PSU), SSD (Solid State Drive) HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and periphery such as a mouse, keyboard, headset and a good monitor. For PSU make sure you have anywhere between 600w and 1000w – 850w PSU is the best option for both your PC and your electricity bill. For an SSD, get either 250GB or 512GB, depending on your preferences. An HDD will depend entirely on you and your "homework" collection. Around 2TB should be enough. Remember, a good eSports PC costs around $2,000, but if you win the championships, then it's definitely worth it!