Building Your First PC
So you've joined the dark side
Welcome to the world of PC gaming. A world of high refresh rates, and perpetual troubleshooting. To get you through a lot of the things I've learned over the years, this guide will act as a checklist to ensure you're getting the most out of your new PC. In truth I've installed Windows so many times I needed to make this guide for myself as well.
I'll be consolidating any new info in the future. So feel free to contact me through the site if you have anything important you think should be added. I want this to become a document we can all reference whenever we setup a new PC.
The Guide
Windows 10 vs 11
At the time of writing Windows 11 just made its debut not that long ago and people are refusing to adopt it as their new OS. So should you join the herd of individuals refusing to upgrade to Windows 11? I've been using it since release so here's but here's my experience so far:
It's still Windows 10, but with a different wrapper. I haven't had any issues beyond what Windows 10 was already giving me. The only nitpick would be the right-click menu that they introduced on release was very sluggish, which seems to have been corrected since. They do hide some important options in the right-click menu as well but it's still accessible. Games perform the exact same, if not better on Windows 11. It's honestly more like Windows 10.5, it's barely different. It'll be up to you in the end, but don't be afraid if you're concerned about performance. I won't dive any deeper into the debate of these two operating systems, but don't worry they perform almost the exact same in the context of gaming.
Install what you feel comfortable with.
System Tweaks
Mouse Acceleration
A common issue that a lot of new PC gamers completely forget about is the plague that is mouse acceleration. Basically what mouse acceleration does, is when you move your mouse your cursor will contintually pick up speed the longer you swipe. This is highly undesirable for gaming as it will remove the consistency and muscle memory it takes to become good at almost any video game. A lot of games already bypass the use of mouse acceleration, but it's always good to disable it as a precaution.
To remove this setting:
Go to Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Mouse > Additional Mouse Settings
Pointer Options Tab > Uncheck Enhance Pointer Precision
Drivers
A very important step to any new setup is to ensure all drivers are installed. If you miss a driver, it could lead to random complications for certain games or programs. If you bought the system from a PC builder, most likely the drivers will all be installed. However, your graphics card drivers will always require a check for the newest optimizations. CPU Drivers: Also known as Chipset Drivers, you'll definitely want to find and install these.
For intel you'll want to install both the chipset driver and the Management Engine (ME) driver. You can find the drivers on either your motherboard manufacturer's website, or directly from Intel's website.
AMD CPUs have their own separate installer you can use. It's usually good practice to install the AMD chipset drivers first, and follow up with a reinstall of AMD GPU drivers (if you have an AMD Graphics card).
Audio Drivers: Audio drivers are somewhat of a mixed bag. Most articles I've seen about the topic say to let Windows use their own drivers. Realtek audio drivers are usually sketchy and cause more issues than they solve. So unless you're having audio issues, stick with Microsoft's default offering.
Graphics Card Drivers: Installing graphics card drivers are an absolute must. Usually windows will install a default driver for you from your chosen GPU company (Nvidia or AMD), but it will be an outdated one from the start. It's recommended you update your driver to the most recent yourself. However be wary, sometimes updating a GPU driver without doing research can cause issues on its own. It's usually a good idea to stay on a driver as long as you can if it has no problems for you.
If you're trying to update drivers because you're having graphical glitches in games, its best practice to use a program called "Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU)". You need to boot into safemode, disconnect your internet, and run the program to completely remove your driver. This prevents code from previous driver installs from interfering with the newer one you're installing.
Network Drivers: Network drivers can be very important as well if you have internet issues. Your motherboard will list what LAN it comes with, as well as compatible drivers on their own site. Once installed its highly recommended you disable a setting called 'Energy Efficient Ethernet' in your device settings. For gaming it's important to note that you should avoid gaming with WiFi. Directly running an ethernet cable into your router or modem is the way to go.
Motherboard Specific Drivers: Another thing to watch for is drivers that your motherboard will automatically tell Windows to download. My motherboard for instance is from Asus; it will automatically download something called 'Asus Armory Crate' which installs a bunch of bloatware that can actually interfere with your network.
Remove Microsoft Bloatware
Disable Microsoft Game Bar
Game Mode
Cortana
OneDrive
Additional Tools
Disable Fast boot: Prevents drivers/software from loading incorrectly.
Latencymon: Helps check if any programs or drivers are failing on the system.
Process Lasso: Set priority for programs, can improve performance