We’ll continue with our component articles as planned. Expect the next entry on hard drives soon.

The last time I built a computer, the case I purchased had a power supply already installed. Good deal, right? Think again! The PSUs that come pre-installed in cases are typically not what a serious enthusiast is looking for (better cases will not come with a power supply). If you’re going to build a mid- or high-end gaming rig, don’t even think about buying a case + PSU combo for $45 to $100. Even if the case suits your needs, the PSU is likely to be under-powered and not of high enough quality for running a high-end CPU and graphics card. For my build, I ended up spending over $350 on my case and PSU ($165 case and $200 PSU), which is more than my CPU is worth retail.

Why spend so much on such a simple component? All a power supply has to do is feed power to the other, more important components, right? Well, yes and no. For one thing, gaming systems draw an enormous amount of power. You have to remember that a quality gaming desktop pushes hardware more than just about any other computing application out there. If you’re running a dual-core CPU, a high-end graphics card, two gigs of RAM, a couple hard drives, an optical drive, and a few case fans, you’re looking at drawing about 350 to 450 watts of power at peak load. One of the articles in CPU notes that if you want to hit the efficiency “sweet spot,” you’ll want your PSU to be capable of supplying twice the power your system will draw, giving it adequate headroom for really intense power spikes. That “free” 325 watt power supply that came with your case isn’t looking so good now, is it?

So, what do we need to look for in a quality PSU? Here’s a quick list that we’ll drill down on:

• basic build quality
• cable design
• rail design
• efficiency rating
• connectors

As with any component, basic build quality is crucial. Fortunately, with PSUs you can use the manufacturer’s reputation as a reliability indicator moreso than you can with other components. There are maybe half a dozen reputable producers of high-end PSUs in the market today, so that reduces the amount of research you need to do. OCZ, Thermaltake, Antec, and Cooler Master are some of the most popular makers of quality PSUs. Some manufacturers of other quality components are also getting into the PSU game, such as Corsair, who are best known for their high-end memory. (Breaking news: OCZ has recently acquired PC Power & Cooling, merging two of the biggest names in power supplies. Let’s hope this marriage brings the best of both companies together.)

You’d think there wouldn’t be much to discuss about power supply design, but as usual, there is more to it than meets the eye, and plenty of areas for heated discussion. Two of the biggest areas of debate in the PSU world have to do with cable and rail design. One of the more recent PSU design updates is to make cables “modular,” meaning that you can plug individual cables into the PSU when you need them and remove the ones you don’t need. This can be important because, as we’ve seen in our discussion of cases, airflow within the case is critical, and the fewer cables you have the less cluttered your case will be. On the downside, modular cables are less efficient at supplying power because of the modular interface. As can be expected, there are proponents on both sides, some saying that the loss of efficiency is negligible, others saying it is significant. I ended up siding with the non-modular, more efficient crowd. PSUs are all about supplying power efficiently, so why degrade that ability? Plus, I’ve got a nice big case with plenty of cable management options, so having extraneous cables won’t be that big an issue for me. Those of you looking to build a SFF box may see things differently.

The other design debate centers around single vs. multiple rails. In a single rail PSU, all the power available to the unit is passed along a single channel or rail, supplying all the cables coming out of the PSU. In a multi-rail design, the total available power is divided between two or more rails, each with its own dedicated maximum power. The issue here, as I understand it, is that single rails can experience something called “crosstalk,” where a power surge to one component can affect other components on the same rail. In theory, this means that if one component fails, it can adversely affect the other components on that rail. Multi-rail design seeks to eliminate crosstalk by isolating components to different rails so that a problem with one component won’t affect other components. Single rail enthusiasts say that this design limits the efficiency of the PSU, since each rail has only a fraction of the total power being supplied by the unit. If all the components on one rail in a multi-rail design are not drawing the max power for that rail, that extra power is lost because it is not available to components on other rails. In a single rail system, this extra power could be used by the other components, making more efficient use of the total power being supplied by the PSU. Again, I came down on the side of efficiency, and opted for a single rail design.

Efficiency rating is another factor to look for in PSUs. When energy is produced by a power supply, some of it is lost in the form of heat. PSUs loose a LOT of energy in the form of heat. In fact, some of the best-rated PSUs sport an efficiency factor of about 80 to 85%, meaning that 15 to 20% of the total power of the PSU is lost to heat. Make sure that your power supply has at least an 80% efficiency rating for maximum performance.

The last thing to check for when shopping power supplies is the type and number of connectors available. Decent PSUs will have more than enough connectors for your needs, including connectors for your motherboard, the CPU, SATA and IDE hard drives, standard molex connectors, and PCIe connectors for your video card(s). If you think you might build an SLI or Crossfire configuration (two video cards), be sure that the PSU supplies enough PCIe connectors. Most high-end video cards require two six pin PCIe connectors, so if you’re going to have two high-end cards, you’re going to need four PCIe connections. The PSU I chose, the PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750, is called a “quad” PSU because it has four PCIe connectors.

Next time: hard drives, easy choices.

Gigabyte is best known for their motherboards and graphics cards, but had a chassis hit a few years ago with the original Aurora case, which won several design awards around the world and garnered many DIY fans. Gigabyte cases are particularly well known for being water-cooling friendly, which quickly moved this model to the top of my list.

My biggest concern about this case was size, especially since I was originally thinking about a small form factor enclosure. When you think about it, though, even if you’re a frequent LAN-goer (maybe 48 hours a month), you’re still looking at a situation where the case will be in one spot 94% of the time. I’m more of a once-every-three-months LAN party person, so I’m looking at a case that will be at rest on my desk top 99% of the time. For the benefit of having a great — if somewhat large — case, I’m willing to suffer lugging it around less than 1% of the time.

The Aurora IS a big case, measuring 205mm W x 522mm H x 570mm D. The width and height of the case aren’t much bigger than a large-sized mid-tower design, but the depth is considerable: if you have a normal-sized home or student desk, this case may not fit on top or under it if you place it face-forward (perpendicular to the length of the desk). I plan to put the case on top of my corner desk, with the length parallel to the long part of the desk, so this wasn’t as much of an issue for me. Plus, I want the case’s side window facing out so that viewers will be wowed by my nifty water-cooling system.

After reading numerous online and print reviews of the case (see the references), I concluded that this would be the right solution for my build. Here are the relevant stats on the case:

• five 5.25” drive bays
• two 3.5” FDD drive bays
• five internal 3.5” hard drive bays
• three 120mm fans with blue LEDs (one intake, two exhaust)
• aluminum construction with nickel-plated steel back panel
• internal storage box for tools / accessories
• two predrilled rubber passthroughs for water cooling tubes
• tool-free drive bays and PCI fastener

I purchased the case from NewEgg, and it arrived in a couple days. The box was HUGE, which didn’t help to assuage my fears about the size of this monster. Once unpacked, I was slightly more comfortable: Gigabyte provides more than adequate packing space in the box, so the shipping box was enormous. As is often the case with big packages, the shipping box was slightly crushed at one corner, but the packaging prevented any damage to the chassis itself.

As expected, the package included the chassis itself, the clear plexi side window (see below), a cable kit, motherboard standoffs, drive bay rails, security keys, screws, and a manual. 

The chassis scores well in all the important case factors that we looked at previously, including space, cooling capability, features, and construction quality. The interior of the case is very roomy, which makes up for the lack of a removable motherboard tray. This case will easily fit the latest and greatest extra-long graphics cards, with room to spare, and can accommodate some of the longer PSUs on the market today.

The single, 120mm intake fan sits at the bottom of the front of the chassis to pull cool air over the hard drive bays, and the dual 120mm exhaust fans sit a little above mid-way up the back of the case, close to where the heat-producing CPU will reside. I’ve read that 120mm fans are the “sweet spot” in terms of volume of air moved to noise ratio, and several reviewers have commented on how quiet these fans are. The rubber pass-throughs will make adding an internal or external water cooling system a snap: no worries about having to use up an expansion slot to pass the hoses through.

Tool-free bays means HDDs and optical drives should be easy to add and remove. One of the unique features of the case is the black plastic tool box which occupies the lower three HDD drive bays. This box came packed with the drive rails, screws, and other miscellaneous items for the case. This box can be used to hold small tools or other items after setup is complete. If you need the additional drive bays for drives, the box is easily removed. I also liked that the drive cage sits so that the backs of the drives (the sides with the connectors) face outward toward the side of the case, rather than toward the motherboard. This should make cabling the drives even easier, though with the new, smaller SATA drive cables this shouldn’t be as big an issue as it was with the old “lasagne” ribbon cables.

Another unique feature of the case, which some reviewers like and some do not, is the LED projector built into the front of the case near the bottom. This projector shines down on whatever surface the case is sitting on and displays an image (“Aurora 3D” by default) in blue LED light. The image can be personalized by swapping out the existing acetate design for your own. Guess I’ll have to think of what mine will show….

Next time: power to the people!

One aspect that can be easy to overlook is noise. Gaming cases are much more likely to generate higher decibels than a standard desktop case, primarily because of the additional fans needed to keep a gaming system cool. Gaming systems have hotter running components than non-gaming systems, even if they’re not overclocked. For example, a GPU processor can generate temperatures well in excess of 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and CPU cores are not far behind. Throw in a couple of 10,000 RPM hard drives, and you’ve got at least four components all pumping out 100 degree plus temperatures inside of a metal enclosure less than three cubic feet in size. Without proper cooling, this can quickly add up to an ambient temperature over 120 degrees inside your PC. In order to combat these temperatures, most high-end case manufacturers have added more and bigger fans, spinning at faster speeds, than found in your typical desktop system. Larger fans and higher rpm mean more noise, and when you’ve got four or five 120mm fans spinning at 1,000+ rpm, it can sound like a jet about to take off.

Fortunately, manufacturers have taken measures with fan technology in recent years to help mitigate the noise factor. Most quality fans now run on smooth ball bearings, and many can dynamically adjust their rotation speed based on real-time temperature data gathered from sensors attached to heat-generating components. There are even 3rd party kits that allow you to manually monitor and adjust fan speeds yourself, so that you can dial down the noise when you’re just cruising the Intarweb and not fragging bad guys.

Some vendors offer special insulating materials that are supposed to help reduce noise as well. You can buy noise reduction kits from some case manufacturers or through online modding outlets like http://www.frozencpu.com/. If you buy a case from them, they will even install the kits for you (for a fee, of course).

Case features are another thing to look for. In addition to cable routing, good airflow design, cooling, and noise reduction, case manufacturers try to distinguish their products by offer that little something extra. Many brands offer something called toolless design, which means that no tools are necessary to install or remove most major components. toolless designs usually include two specific features: a rail system for drive bays and a screwless bracket for holding expansion cards in place.

In the old days of PC building, you had to mount your hard drives and optical drives inside the drive cage by securing them with screws. This often meant having to devise some clever ways to get a screwdriver inside your case at the right angle to hit those tiny screw heads. For me, it also meant a lot of stripped threads. With a rail system, on the other hand, you simply screw two plastic rails to the drive itself (while it’s outside of the PC) and then slide the drive into the bays, where they lock into place. This is a really nice feature, especially if you find yourself having to pull drives out of your case with any frequency.

Screwless brackets hold in your expansion cards (video, sound, network, etc.) via a plastic or metal bracket that simply hinges and unhinges like a door latch. This means you don’t have to screw your cards into place (although some like the added security when moving their PCs around). The only downside to screwless brackets is that the bracket releases ALL the cards at once — you can’t choose to add or remove individual cards — and often all the cards will have to be adjusted slightly before the bracket is closed again.

Other case features can include built-in passthroughs for water cooling tubes (so that you don’t have to use an expansion slot for this purpose), easy to remove side panels with thumbscrews instead of regular screws (no screwdriver needed), and a wide variety of aesthetic considerations like see-through side panels and lighting (see below).

If you’re going to be taking your case to LAN parties or moving it around regularly, construction quality should be a major concern. Most mass-market manufacturers build their cases of hard molded plastic around a steel frame. This is the worst possible combination of elements for a travelling case: the steel frame makes the box heavy, and the plastic affords it little protection from bumps. A better option is a case built with an aluminum frame and outer casing. Aluminum is just about as strong as steel but much less heavy, and won’t crack or break if you bump or drop your case. The only downside to aluminum is that screws threaded into the material tend to strip it much more easily. For this reason, many case manufacturers have decided to use steel construction in the back plane of the computer (the back side that houses the fan exhaust ports, expansion card access area and peripheral connections).

The last thing to mention about case consideration is aesthetics. Gone are the days of the plain beige box for DIYers. Today, there are plenty of options to trick your case out and make it your own.

Many mid- to high-end cases now come with windows built into the side of the case. These are designed to provide a peek into the guts of your chassis, so that onlookers can marvel at the technological wonders within. This is especially nice if you have other mods going on inside the case, such as cold cathode lighting or neon liquid filled water cooling tubes. Other options include black light enabled parts, case decals, custom airbrushing, and lighted or glow-in-the-dark cables. Some people really enjoy adding these kinds of mods; others are more, well, moderate. I’m not sure yet where I’ll fall in this category. My case did come with some minimal lighting on the fans, so there’s that. We’ll see how much further I take it as the build progresses.

Next time (for real): the complete low-down on the Gigabyte Aurora 3D 570…complete with photos!

When I went to the LAN party last month, I was intrigued by the variety of cases users had brought with them. There were big PC cases (REALLY big), there were small PC cases, there was even a Mac. Some had basic case mods going on (neon lights, side panel windows, etc.), and one even had a water cooling system. I liked the small boxes that looked more like cubes than towers. I thought it would be cool to build a small gaming box to bring to LANs. Bringing my Dell Dimension 4400 wasn’t that big a deal (I had a duffle bag with a shoulder strap that it fit into nicely), but how cool would it be to have one of those nice, small boxes with a built in carrying handle?

I began to research cases, and quickly realized that — as with most things PC — case choice is more complicated than it might seem initially. Fortunately, Computer Power User and Maximum PC magazines had spotlight articles on cases (or “enclosures”) in their March and April issues. (These are fine, fine magazines for the DIYer, by the way. Very highly recommended.) Based on their reviews of about a dozen cases and some of my own Internet research, here are the important things to look for when considering cases:

• form factor
• cooling considerations
• noise levels
• features
• construction quality
• aesthetics

First, there is form factor. Form factor describes the type and size of motherboard that will fit into the case. PC motherboards come in a variety of form factors: AT, ATX, microATX, BTX, and others. Specific CPUs will only work with certain motherboards, so depending on which CPU you’re using, you may be limited to certain motherboard types and, by extension, particular case form factors.

Your standard PCs — the beige or black rectangles that we’ve all come to know and disregard — are usually in the ATX form factor, the most popular form factor in use today. ATX motherboards are approximately 12” x 10”, and are usually housed in cases in either the “tower” (vertical) or “desktop” (horizontal) configurations. There are mid-tower cases (this is what you get when you buy a standard PC from Dell, Gateway, or one of the other big manufacturers) and full-tower cases (sometimes used for server computers or by enthusiasts who like a lot of room for expansion).

The small, cube-like cases that I had admired at the LAN usually support what is known as the microATX form factor, which is a slightly smaller version of the full ATX design. So, if smaller designs allow for smaller cases and less weight to carry around, why go bigger? There are a few compelling reasons:

1. ATX supports more expansion slots for video, audio, network, and other card types (a typical ATX board has 5 or more expansion slots, while a microATX supports up to 4 but more commonly 3 slots.
2. Room to work. MicroATX boards and cases are by their nature more cramped, and it can be a challenge to place your components on the board and run the necessary cables to them without mangling your hands.
3. Ventilation. ATX cases have more open space in them, and therefore are usually better at moving air around the components that need it.
4. Not all motherboards come in microATX format.

As much as I liked the idea of having a smaller PC, I eventually decided against it for the reasons above. #4 was the real killer, as the motherboard that I’m leaning toward buying doesn’t come in the microATX form factor. I also have to admit that having more room to work is very appealing, as the last computer I built was in a smallish mid-tower case and was a pain in the neck to work with.

Cooling considerations must also be taken into account. If you spend any amount of time reading BIY or overclocking sites, you learn by heart the mantra “heat is your system’s worst enemy.” Since I plan to overclock my system, I wanted to be sure to buy a case that would provide plenty of cooling options. Things to look for in terms of cooling are:

• Space and airflow design. A lot of stuff gets crammed into a case: Motherboard, expansion cards, power supplies, hard drives, optical drives, etc. Add the wiring needed to hook all this together and you can easily end up with a rat’s nest inside your box. All this stuff gets in the way of proper air flow. Ideally, air should flow into the case in the front (usually helped by an intake fan or fans mounted near the bottom front of the case), travel over the motherboard and major components, and flow out of the case at the back (with the help of one or more exhaust fans). If you don’t have adequate space in your box, all the components and wiring can get in the way and disrupt this flow, leading to a buildup of heat. Extra space is also needed if you plan to use a built-in water cooling unit in your case. And if fans aren’t place properly for optimum airflow, you can end up with “dead air” zones inside the computer (I’ve seen cases with input and output fans located right next to each other — not an optimal plan for circulating air around the whole case).
• Fans. Fans help pull cool air into your case and exhaust hot air out of it. At a bare minimum, a case will usually have two exhaust fans: one built into the power supply and one at the back of the case in the area the CPU will reside (this is how my Dell is set up). This is not adequate for a mid- to high-end gaming box, however. You want to be sure that your box has at least one input fan (usually at the front of the case) and one or two exhaust fans in addition to the power supply fan. Having both input and exhaust fans will insure that there is a constant flow of air over your motherboard and other components. Some enthusiast-level cases come with up to five input and five exhaust fans.
• Cable routers. The mass of cables that collect inside a case can block air flow. A well-designed case will include a cable routing system that helps to organize cables and keep them out of the way.

Next time, we’ll look at the other important case design considerations (noise, features, construction and aesthetics) and see how well the case I bought — the Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 — stacks up.

Intel E6600 processor, still in its boxed beauty.

CPUs and Gaming Performance

The CPU and the GPU are the two most important components in a gaming system. For a mid-range to high-end system, you should expect to spend about 25% of your overall budget on these two parts. We’ll talk about GPUs in a future entry; for now, let’s take a look at how CPUs affect gaming performance.

CPU Attributes

There are a few key attributes to recognize in a CPU:

• processor speed, measured in gigahertz (GHz)
• chip architecture (single core, multi-core, etc.)
• cache size
• FSB (Front Side Bus) speed

The first and most obvious is the speed of the processor, measured in gigahertz (GHz). Most procs on the market today run in the 1.5 to 3.0 GHz range. The higher the number, the faster the raw computational power of the CPU. But speed isn’t everything.

CPUs today come in single- and multi-core models. A dual-core CPU has two processors built onto the same chip. This means that the CPU can divvy up tasks between the two cores, running the tasks in parallel and thereby finishing them more quickly. This doesn’t always happen automatically, though — the software running on your computer must be designed to take advantage of this capability. At the moment, most PC games are not optimized for multi-core CPUs (Supreme Commander is one notable exception).

The size of the L2 cache is another important consideration. The cache is a bit of memory built into the CPU built to hold frequently needed information. Keeping this information in the cache means it is faster to access, because the CPU doesn’t have to process the information again — it just uses what’s been set aside. The bigger the L2 cache on a CPU, the faster it will be in general.

The FSB (Front Side Bus) speed is another important consideration. The FSB determines how fast the processor can communicate with the memory on your motherboard. In high-end systems today, FSB speed is actually the bottleneck in CPU / memory performance, so a higher native FSB is a big advantage. FSB also plays a big part in how much you will be able to overclock your system.

It’s important to remember that raw speed isn’t the best measurement of gaming performance. For example, a Pentium 4 processor running at 2.0 GHz may not be as fast as a Core 2 Duo proc running at 1.6 GHz, due to the improved architecture of the newer chip with its two cores and larger cache.

How to Choose a Gaming CPU

Generally speaking, you’re going to want to buy the latest generation processor for your system. The way to save a few dollars is to buy one of the lower end procs within the current generation. With each generation of processor, manufacturers produce chips at multiple performance levels, sometimes known as “budget,” “mid-range,” and “enthusiast.” Budget procs are priced much lower than other CPUs in their generation, and are meant to provided an entry point for users who want to upgrade to a latest-gen proc but can’t afford to spend $300 or more for a CPU. Budget procs are less expensive due to slower chip speeds and reduced L2 cache sizes. In the Intel Core 2 Duo line, the E6300 and E6400 CPUs fall into this category, at 1.86 and 2.13 GHz respectively, each with a 2 MB L2 cache. At the time of this writing, these chips are selling for $182 and $221.

Enthusiast CPUs are high-end processors marketed to users who want nothing but the best, and are willing to pay for it. Within the Intel line, these chips are actually marketed under the “Extreme” moniker, such as the Core 2 Extreme X6800, which runs at 2.93 GHz with a 4 MB L2 cache and a 1,066 FSB. This is the top-of-the-line chip from Intel, and sells around $1,000 (a typical price for the flagship proc from Intel at any given time).

Between these two extremes, we have the mid-range CPU line. In the Core 2 Duo family, this includes the E6600 and the E6700, running at 2.4 and 2.66 GHz with a 4 MB L2 cache and 1,066 FSB. These CPUs are currently selling for $312 and $510. The chip I won, the E6600, is at the low end of the mid-range, an area lovingly known as the “sweet spot.” This proc provides the best value for your dollar, since it has all the attributes of the higher-end CPUs (the 4 MB L2 cache) minus the raw processor speed. But this chip is really the enthusiasts dream, since processor speed is a factor that can be increased with overclocking. In fact, a quick search of reviews online for this processor reveal that even under minimal overclocking conditions (using stock cooling equipment), this CPU can achieve speeds of 2.8 to 3.2 GHz, putting it well over the 2.93 GHz of the Extreme X6800. So, for about $700 less you can have a chip that surpasses the best CPU currently on the market.

Artsy shot of the E6600 sitting atop its stock cooler.

Did I get lucky or what?! It looks like I picked up the perfect CPU for my new gaming rig. A more careful search of reviews online show the E6600 to be the pick of the litter of current gaming procs. One reviewer went so far as to say that the “E6600 is in our opinion, one of the best processors (if not the best) which Intel has released in the past five years” (The Chosen One: Intel’s Core 2 Duo E6600 Processor). Here are some of the other glowing reviews of the E6600:

• Firing Squad
• NeoSeeker
• PCStats
• Guru3D

If you’re looking for a great processor for your gaming machine at a killer price, I definitely recommend that you check out the E6600.

Next time: Case studies.

• a case
• a power supply
• a motherboard
• a CPU
• memory
• a hard drive
• a video card
• an optical drive
• a keyboard
• a mouse
• a monitor
• headphones or speakers

This is the absolute minimum that you need to build a gaming PC. This list does not include some components that are typically built into the motherboard, although you may want to upgrade these. Here are the additional items that you may need to buy:

• additional cooling. Most cases come with fans built into them, and CPUs come with a stock fan or heatsink, but depending on your needs you may need additional cooling — especially if you plan to overclock.
• network card. Most mobos have this built in, but you may want to add a better card or a wifi card if you have a wireless network at home.
• sound card. Again, there is usually some form of sound card built onto the board, but most serious gamers choose to upgrade this component.
• USB 2.0 card. Probably hard to find a mobo that doesn’t include a good number of fast USB ports these days.

In addition, you may need other parts depending on your performance goals:

• a second CPU
• a second video card (for SLI and CrossFire configurations)
• additional hard drives for increased storage capacity, data redundancy, or performance

Then there are the myriad other parts that you need to support those mentioned above, like cabling, screws, hard drive rails, etc. We’ll discuss these as we look into the individual components themselves.

The only other items you may want fall into the “modding” category, and include things like neon case lights, external temperature gauges, and other fancy extras. We’ll cover these in our discussions of individual components as well.

Now I know the names of the parts I need. What’s next? Do I go online and buy whatever is on sale at Newegg or Microcenter? Not if I’m serious about my build. For each of the parts needed, there are tens if not hundreds of different manufacturers and models. First, I need to determine exactly what kind of case, power supply, graphics card, etc. it is that I need in order to reach my performance goals. This means I need to understand how each part functions, and how the performance of the individual parts affect the performance of the whole system. I have a good basic understanding of these principles, but it’s been a long time since I did this, and the technology has changed substantially, so I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

Fortunately, there is a wealth of information about this technology available online. Geeks love to talk about technology. Geeks built the Internet. It’s a marriage made in nerd heaven, and anyone with (literally) any question about PCs can probably find their answer online. So, the Internet will be my primary research tool, although I’ll use some off-line resources as well.

Where to start? I know from previous research that there are incredibly in-depth websites devoted exclusively to the subjects of PC gaming and hardware, so that’s a good place to start. Based on past builds, I know of a few right off the top of my head:

• http://www.tomshardware.com
• http://www.anandtech.com
• http://www.sharkyextreme.com/
• http://www.firingsquad.com/

These are sites that I used years ago, the last time I built my own computer, but haven’t been back to since. A quick look at the web reveals that these sites are still alive and kicking, pumping out reviews on the latest hardware tech. In addition to off-the-chart, crazy-detailed reviews of individual components, most of these sites also have more general tech articles, how-tos, and industry news. Need to know all about the latest generation of video cards? It’s all there. Have a particular CPU in mind and want to know what motherboards it will work with? Check. When it comes to tech questions, the Intarweb tubes have all the answers.

So the ‘net will be my primary resource. What else is out there? As with any field of specialized knowledge, there are periodicals dedicated to the subject. Some of the best for my purposes are:

• Maximum PC mag
• CPU (Computer Power User)

These monthly publications contain a wealth of info, similar to the websites listed above but in a nice, portable, non-electronic format (some times it’s nice to get away from the monitor). Some mags even come with a CD full of helpful utilities and demos. These two mags are pretty popular, and can be found at any chain bookstore like Barnes and Noble or Borders.

A quick search of the bookstores and Amazon reveals that there are a few books covering the “how to build your own PC” topic, and even some that are dedicated to building a gaming PC. The issue with books is that a) they are among the most expensive research options, and b) the information in them is already six months out of date by the time they hit the bookshelves. I’ll probably spend most of my time with the first two options.

So I have some great resources to begin my research. I’ve decided to take a component-by-component approach, researching each in turn. I already have a CPU thanks to my great luck at the LAN, so that choice is already made, but let’s cut our research teeth by getting the low-down on this freebie. Is it any good? Can I build a killer system around it?

Next time: silicon brain probe.

Then I happened to win a Core 2 Duo processor, and the desire to building my own box quickly overwhelmed my urge to pull the trigger on the lappy. But now I had a dilemma: I had to figure out what to build. Whereas with the laptop I had very limited component options, I now had a whole world of parts to choose from. I realized that I had to set some goals in order to help me choose the right parts for this new system. How did I determine my system goals? For me, it’s all about the quality of my gaming experience, which is predicated on a few key things:

1. How smooth the motion of the graphics are, measured in frames per second (fps).
2. How detailed and realistic the graphics are (measured in screen resolution, image clarity, and the ability to portray environmental effects like smoke, fog, reflections, water, and other elements).
3. How compelling the gameplay elements are (story, characters, setting, plot, variety of weapons / levels, replayability, etc.)

Of these three elements, I have control over only the first two — #3 is up to the game developers. In terms of the first two elements, my current system falls sadly short of the mark. I primarily play first person shooter games, which are the most hardware-intensive games around, and I often play on the ‘net against human opponents. In these games, every frame counts: any stuttering  or slow-downs due to inadequate graphics hardware and you’re fragbait. My current box is a Dell 4400 2.0 GHz Pentium 4 with a gig of RAM and an nVidia GeForce 6800 XT video card. This setup was adequate for first person shooters up through Unreal Tournament 2003, as long as I played in resolutions less than 1280 x 1024 with medium detail settings. After that point, my frame rate began to drop to the point that games were almost unplayable, on the ‘net or off. This was especially noticeable when Doom 3 came out — I had to drop my resolution to 800 x 600 (I refuse to go down to 640 x 480 — that is so 1995), set all graphics settings to low, and even then I was getting between eight and twenty fps.

Eight frames per second may sound like a lot — a second is a very short amount of time, right? But in the world of PC games, this is not the case. At eight frames per second, you move through the virtual world as if you’re wading through pancake syrup wearing a suit of armor. Most gamers tend to agree that anything less than thirty fps is highly unsatisfactory. Between thirty and fifty fps is OK, but not great. Sixty fps is good: at sixty, you’re fraggin’ and baggin’. Many say that it becomes hard to notice any appreciable difference once you get above sixty fps, though some claim they can see a difference up to eighty or even 100 fps. Also, we’re talking about minimum fps here, not average. You may average forty fps during the course of a game, but if your minimum drops to twelve fps,  you’re dead meat (which will happen at the very worst time: right in the middle of a big firefight).

As gaming graphics engines become more sophisticated, my current setup becomes more outdated. I recently purchased F.E.A.R., a game so hardware intensive that it is often used as a benchmarking application for graphics processing. Once again I had to turn down all the settings in order to make the game playable, and it was barely playable. I could get through the game, but it just wasn’t as enjoyable an experience.

Given this sad state of affairs, I determined the following:

1. I want to increase the minimum frame rate per second (fps) in my first person shooter games to somewhere between seventy and 100 or more. Sure, I may not notice anything above sixty, but having that extra headroom means that future games will probably play above sixty fps as well.
2. I want to be able to run the above frame rates in resolutions up to at least 1600 x 1200, with 8x anti-aliasing and 4x anisotropic filtering enabled.
3. I want to be able to run at these specs in all games published in the next twelve months.

To get this resolution to run at those frame rates, I’m going to have to put together a serious gaming machine. But can I do this without breaking the bank? What about upgrading my current machine? Or buying a pre-built gaming desktop? My cost goal was to spend about $2,500 on new hardware (not including tax and shipping). That way, I could take some of the $2,500 that I would be saving on the Dell XPS laptop and buy a more reasonable laptop for non-gaming applications.

For me, the upgrade vs. build vs. buy decision was easy. First, there was no way in hell I was going to be able to upgrade my current box to hit these specs. My current motherboard, in addition to being proprietary and therefore difficult to upgrade, is years out of date. I couldn’t use my new processor in it, and it doesn’t support PCIe, so there is no way to upgrade to a top-end graphics card. Without these two upgrades, there is no way for me to meet these goals.

Second, to meet these performance expectations, I’d have to buy a pre-built system from someone like Alienware, Falcon, or WidowPC, and that would put me right back up in the $4-5k range, so that was out. Decision made: BIY, here I come!

So those are the goals. Next step: begin researching components and prices to see if it’s possible to build this behemoth with a $2,500 budget in mind.