Want to use your computer as a gaming PC? You can either buy a gaming PC that we have already selected for you, or you can consider whether it is practical to upgrade your own computer to support the games you want to play.

The more you know about the inner workings of a computer, the easier it is to make informed decisions about which components are worth upgrading. There may only be one or two pieces of hardware that could use a good upgrade before you start gaming, but you may find that you need to replace almost everything (or nothing) before your PC is considered gaming-ready.

In this guide, we’ll explain what to look for when choosing a gaming setup, and what you already have in your computer, so you can avoid paying for an upgrade if you don’t need to.

A CPU, or central processing unit, is what processes instructions from applications. It takes information from a program and then decodes and executes the instructions. It’s important for general computing needs, but is an especially critical component to consider when thinking about gaming.