Gaming for money is no longer a pipe dream, but it's still not as simple as winning a few contests or getting a job as a beta tester. There are many paths to success—both gradual and grandiose—when it comes to generating steady income or building a proper business based on gaming, and in all directions, your IT infrastructure needs to be just as robust as any tech business. Here's what matters for professional gamers who want to make a sustainable income while keeping their business options open.

A Strong, Core Gaming Computer

The gaming computer is the core of the gaming business, but what matters when it comes to gaming design? Many professional gamers enter the arena with different perspectives, and although the easiest answer is "don't be cheap," you also need to know how to not be ripped off by hype. 

A powerful central processing unit (CPU), a powerful video card (graphics card unit or GPU), enough RAM, and a stable internet connection are the core of a gaming business at the ground level. Unless you are a competitive player and noticing performance issues that are computer-related, there is no reason to go into other performance for their performance.

All other components merely need to accommodate these core components out of the box, meaning without any complex programming or third party tools that need to be researched on the internet. The motherboard must have connections that fit all of the components and official, manufacturer-provided drivers.

Understanding Computer Costs, Performance & Risks

As far as performance for these components, follow the recommended specifications on your games of choice. The specifications need to exceed what your games recommend, but there's no need to have more than double of what the game recommends.

"More is better" is a fallacy that many gamers run into, and the arguments have a lot of technicalities that try to make excuses for overspending. If you're managing a business, you need to both make sure you're not underspending on poor performance, but not overspending on resources that you won't take advantage of.

The main risk with overspending is that your investment can fail very quickly. For example, two components are at $200 and $400. This one for $400 is twice the speed of the $200 component, but both components are more than what a game needs.

Both devices can fail at the same time for various reasons. Wasting money on the excessive, $400 device means you've lost $200 that could have been invested in other parts of the business.

There are times when the most expensive option is necessary, such as being the first part of a new generation that major game companies are writing their games to use. In these cases, it's up to you to figure out if the new performance boost is worth early adoption, or if you'd rather wait for a price drop or a confirmed budget option.

Pricing and measuring performance can be difficult, as it relies on actually using the cards with a specific computer build. The specification numbers on the product's box mean a lot, but they don't cover every single performance issue. Contact an IT support company like Staffing Solutions, LLC to get help with wading through different technical aspects of designing a gaming computer infrastructure at the sustainable business level.