I've seen that alot of people on alot of PC forums ask about what to buy for their pc, so i took the liberty of creating a guide for low, mid and high-end buyers, ENJOY!
Spring '06 Buying Guide
Hey again. Is your comp running slow, not running games well, and can?t handle HDR or SM 3.0 goodness? Well then my friend, tis the season to purchase new computer hardware. I?ll be going through optimal configurations of new hardware for budget, midrange and high-end users, with budget being sub-1000 Canadian dollars (about 850 USD.) I?ll include a recommended CPU, motherboard, Video card, RAM, Hard drives, Power supplies, and maybe even cooler and case options if I have time. So, without further adieu, the GUIDE!!!!!
Low End
Processor: There are many processor options available, ranging from the lowliest of the remnant S478 Celerons to the powerful AMD FX series. But seeing as how the comp you are building is most likely one being built for gaming, I?m going to choose a nice AMD processor. Most might not think of this, but for a low-end system a socket 939, AMD 3000+ (with a Venice core) will provide much more than the needed performance, and you can find them for around $150CDN (125USD). For our purposes, a 1.8GHz Athlon 64 will give us 64bit support for Vista, and plenty of horses to run anything the rest of this baby will throw at it.
Motherboard: there are tons of budget range motherboards available, with decent sets of features along with a sub $100CDN (sub 80USD) price tag. The one we've selected is the Asus A8N5X nForce4 socket 939 motherboard. It supports Athlon 64?s, has 4 DIMM (Dual Inline Memory Modules) slots that allow dual channel usage and up to 4 GB of total RAM. It even supports SATA hard drives, and has onboard audio, coupled with PCI-Express functionality for the latest generation of video cards. All this for about $80US, can be found here
RAM: nothing much to say about budget RAM, just get either one 512mb stick of ram or 2x256mb of plain old ?value? (i.e. not brand-name such as OCZ or Corsair) should do the trick, should cost no more than $50CDN.
Hard Drives: I?d suggest not using the SATA ports on this motherboard, as SATA drives are typically more expensive. Go with a 80-120 GB IDE/ATA (they?re the same thing, but some companies brand their products differently) this should run you nothing over $80CDN, sometimes as low as $60 when they?re on sale.
Power Supply O, great regulator of electrons, the most overlooked yet still critical part of the home pc, I shall pay homage to you humbleness. What I mean to say is, no matter what kind of computer you want to build, put in a solid power-supply (henceforth referred to as PSU or Power Supply Unit) one great deception among power supplies is that more wattage is all that matters. Well, this is false. Many cheap no-name PSU brands have wattage peaks that are as stated on the box under
PERFECT conditions. However, their normal max limits are typically much lower than brand-name ones. Go with one such as this . I know, at $100CDN it looks pricey, but its worth it, trust me. I bought a cheesy $40 400w PSU when I built my comp. But before I knew it, the thing burnt out for no good reason, save shoddy engineering. Since then I?ve gotten (now discontinued) 450w Enermax black PSU, and the voltages remain rock-solid, which is certainly a GOOD thing. It ran me a good $100, but in reality had I bought this before the other one; it would have saved me $40. But if you can?t find that exact one, anything around 400-450 watts from Enermax, Antec, or other famous brands should more than suffice. I know this is a budget build, but there will be a day when you want to upgrade, and if you don?t realize that your PSU can?t handle it, it?s a real pain in the behind.
Cooler and Cases: Well, any good old ATX case (starting at like, 20 bucks) will do for a budget build; you want it to run, not look particularly pretty. As for coolers, you might want to invest in an 80mm (or 92mm, depending on the case you choose and what fits). However, I would certainly NOT recommend anything above the stock cooling for anything, because they should keep anything you budget people will buy just fine.
Video Card: I thought I?d play hard to get with this one and put it at the end, because although important, all the other elements here are just as critical, and believe it or not some people read these guides just for video card ideas, buy something, and wonder why it doesn?t fit. For the purposed of this, I?m choosing a PCI-E solution to go with the PCI-Express motherboard. This is better twofold. First, PCI (which stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect) Express has 2x the bandwidth of AGP8x (4 GB/s vs. 2.1 GB/s). I would personally recommend an X1600Pro. This thing its pretty cheap, only about 150-200 dollars Canadian, and it?ll give you all the Shader Model 3.0 (aka SM 3.0) and HDR features, as long as the Avivo and other X1k series features, along with acceptable budget performance. The specific one I chose comes with a dual-slot HiS cooling system, available here
Let?s recap. We spent about 150 on the processor, 90 on the motherboard, 50 on the RAM, 80 on the hard drive, 100 on the PSU, let?s allow 50 for case, and 160 on the video card. This all adds up to $680 Canadian without taxes. Add 7% GST and 8% PST, and we get a total cost with tax of $782. Not bad eh? Now, I know I didn?t include a monitor, but for a budget build your really don?t need to upgrade it unless your monitor is truly atrocious. If this is the case, contact me personally (don't worry, i don't bite) as depending on your needs and wants the perfect one can be elusive. Well, that?s all for the low end, now unto mid-range.
Mid-End
Alright folks, now we?re onto the kind of computers that most avid gamers will buy. Something that can give them most of the eye candy at about 1280x1024 resolution. This section is here for you, my friends.
Processor: The processor I would recommend for the midrange is an Athlon 64 Socket 939 3700+. Make sure not to get the 3800+, it is similar in price, but has less cache and a faster clock speed. Why warn against it if it?s faster though, tacheon, for being an avid over clocker you make is seem as though faster is ALWAYS better isn?t it? No young grasshopper(s), you have much to learn. Although the 3800+ is clocked 200 MHz faster than the 3700+, it only has 512kb of L2 cache, half of that the 3700+ has. While this extra cache does not give quite as much performance as 200 MHz, its close. Plus, its easy to over clock (at least after spending a little time around me tongue.gif) the 3700+ up to (and past) stock 3800+ levels, which is essentially a 4000+ without the extra cost, seeing as the 3700+ is seen at under 300CDN, yet the 4000+ is around 420CDN.
Motherboard: Honestly folks, I?m going to leave the motherboard recommendation the same as budget, she?s a solid board if you can find her. Just take a peek at the post above this one for the info on it.
RAM: well now, I think that for midrange RAM we can change around our objectives a little bit. For this, I would recommend 2x512 MB, preferably a 2 pack matched specifically for dual channel. These usually cost around $120CDN, such as These What is dual channel you ask? Dual channel gives a small (but always wanted) performance increase, and that 1GB of RAM reduces hard-drive lag severely on many games. I?m talking like, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Battlefield 2, and other games where there are vast open areas. I don?t think at this stage of the game it?s necessary to splurge on big-name RAM though, just get something like Ultra or Kingston, with parts like these midrange ones they should deal with over clocking fine. If not, you can buy RAM heat spreaders for dirt cheap, like 5 bucks a pop.
Hard Drive: Welcome to SATA midrangers. Though more expensive, SATA has 2x the bandwidth of ATA133, and with that reduced load times and such. If you don?t mind getting a refurbished one, you can usually find 120-160 GB ones with 8-16 MB cache?s for about $80CDN. But if you want a lot of storage space and good performance, go for a 7200RPM, 8mb cache one such as This which will run you about $150 without the rebate.
Power Supply: One last holdover from the realm of budget, seeing as that was a solid PSU, which should give you no hassle, and $100 is easier to swallow in the midrange anyways.
Coolers: I?ve decided to just call this ?coolers? now, as cases come in all kinds of shapes, and how it looks is more personal Preference than anything else. But as far as cooling goes, I?d recommend a nice silent one, such as This one here . couple this with some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste(which can be found here)
and your CPU will be running silent and (hopefully) cool.
Video Card: oh yes, the moment you?ve all been waiting for, what will tach recommend for the MIDRANGE VIDEOCARD OF SPRING 2006? Although there was some competition, it was easy once I decided to give 2 choices. The First would be the nVidia 7600GT, a card that performs at the same level as a 6800 Ultra, and can be had for around 270-300 dollars CDN. The other option is the 7900GT. This thing is a great card, performance equal to that of a 7800GTX, and over clocking potential to boot, she?s a great card and has been spotted in the wild at about 420 CDN. This is a pretty big step, but the performance will follow if you want a midrange computer with one special shining part. Of course, both of these cards are capable of using HDR (High Dynamic Range) and SM 3.0, with excellent performance for medium resolutions.
Ok, so here is how it stands for the midrange section now: we got 300 for the processor, 90 for the motherboard, 120 for the RAM, 150 for the Hard drive, 100 for the power supply, and between 300 and 420 for the video card. This works out to between $1060 and $1200, in Canadian Dollars. With the aforementioned 15% tax, that?s going to run you a good $1220-1370, but well worth every penny. That?s all for the midrange, now onto monsters of silicon, the baddest of the bad, the pc?s that will make HD gaming look like Childs play, the High-end AKA extreme users.
High-End/Extreme
As a precursor to this part of what will be henceforth referred to as The Guide (hitchhikers anyone?) I wish to warn everyone that now is really NOT the time to upgrade to an extreme system unless you bathe in money, because this stuff is expensive and there are to be major feature advancements in the near future, specifically DirectX/Direct3d10. I know I know, in the pc gaming world nowadays theres always new advancements no one can keep up to, but this one is a BIG one. DX10 will revolutionize computer graphics folks. It?s got faster .dll?s, more efficient architecture, not to mention more stringent requirements for compatibility. So let me repeat, that if you want a high end system but don?t want to buy new stuff this coming January, then go ING bank style and ?save your money?. But for those among us who are blood lusting for performance, here it is. Welcome son, welcome to the Machine.
Processor: this may seem odd to some, but I?m not going Intel OR Athlon 64. oh no dear friends, this is not the time of standard girly-man processors, oh no. We?re talking server CPU?s, I?m talking Opteron?s. An Opteron 180 is a dual core @ 2.4 GHz, just like the 4800+, and has 2x1mb L2 cache. So what?s the difference, why should I pay more for the Opteron when I have awesome performance for less with the Athlon 64 X2. Well, it all has to do with quality. You see, Opteron?s are designed for server environments, with much more stress, and much less room for failure. So, the Opteron line is the best of the chips AMD can pump out (generally from FAB 30 in Dresden, Germany). What does this mean in terms of end-user advantages? Well, longer useable lifespan for sure, lower power consumption, less voltage, and the MOST important aspect of them, they are the sickest over clocking CPU?s known to mankind. Its very common to take an Opteron 165 with a stock speed of 1.8 GHz all the way to between 2.6 and 2.8GHz, which means that it meets of exceeds the speed of a stock Athlon 64 FX-60, which costs about 3x more. And seeing as the 180 has a core clock of 2.4GHz, its reasonable to expect a good 3.0 to 3.2 GHz out of this, which will DESTROY any Intel at gaming, no matter how fast the Intel is running. I mean, at 2.4 this thing is approximately equal to a 3.9GHz Pentium 4, so at 3.2 it will be unstoppable. However, this performance comes at the cost of a mid-range computer, going for about $1000 Canadian.
Motherboard: Young Padawons, it is now time to be come Jedi, no more of this cheap motherboard stuff, you?re too cool for that. For this, I?m Recommending the MSI K8N Diamond Plus SLi. It Supports 2 PCI-E 16x cards, good if you want to go SLi, but I don?t think that is the direction we want to go in this guide, for reasons which I?ll explain later. This thing has all the features you?ll ever need and the kitchen sink. It has onboard surround sound, onboard optical outputs, gigabit LAN, dual channel RAM etc. The price is kind of steep at 250 bucks, but its well worth having a great chipset with over clocking options to compliment your other beasts.
RAM: ok kiddies, its time to let it all hang out; we?re stepping into the big leagues here. I would go with 2x1GB sticks of high-performance, brand-name RAM here, something along the lines of Corsair TwinX 2x1024mb dual channel modules. They have tight timings and have tons of space, letting you have quick memory, and letting you enable highest textures on open games (think MMO?s, Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion, and Battlefield 2) for 375 dollars its pricey, but they?re worth it if you want to over clock everything to their maximum levels.
Hard Drive(s): With a very special thanks to Missing Ghost, we have a great idea for all the hardcore games. That would be RAID0 just get 2 of the SATA drives from the midrange category, and then click HERE to learn more from his guide.
Coolers: Well, here is where there are 2 ways to go. The first is top of the line air cooling; the second and more effective one is water-cooling. The reason I included both types is simple: Air is easy for just about anyone to install, however water can be a pain in the ass if you?re either unconfident or don?t know what you?re doing. For Air-cooling, a good copper Zalman is recommended, such as the CNSP9500, which you can view http://www.zalman.co.kr/ . Water cooling however is a different story, and there are tons of different kits that you can buy, and depending on your specific needs you should see a hardware specialist.
Video Card: Here it is, the culmination of the best visual processing units we have available to us mere mortals. There are 2 possible options, Single and Dual card. For Single, I would recommend an ATi Radeon X1900XTX, seeing as it has better SM 3.0 compatibility than any other card to date, has equal brute gaming force of an nVidia 7900GTX, yet is able to run both HDR and AA simultaneously, something the 7900GTX can?t (sometimes, depending on how the scene is being rendered). This is going to cost a pretty penny, and will range in price from 700 to 750 dollars Canadian. For the ultimate maximum Frames per Second (FPS), I would have to recommend 2x 7900GTX?s in SLi. ATi has a dual card solution called crossfire, but it is typically less effective due to less developer support, and the lack of quality motherboards needed to run it. So for now, I would have to go with the 7900GTX?s. of course, this is going to cost you 675-750 a card, so like 1350-1500 dollars Canadian. Well, that or a kidney tongue.gif
So that?s what I would pick to be on the top of the gaming frontier. But remember to take these high-end parts with a grain of salt, for with upcoming DX10 your Uber card won?t be able to run all the sexy new features. But if you have the cash to burn, then by all means take a crack at a system like this bad boy. Special thanks to MissingGhost as well for much-needed assistance with this section. This is tacheon, wishing you all the best.
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Spring '06 Buying Guide
Hey again. Is your comp running slow, not running games well, and can?t handle HDR or SM 3.0 goodness? Well then my friend, tis the season to purchase new computer hardware. I?ll be going through optimal configurations of new hardware for budget, midrange and high-end users, with budget being sub-1000 Canadian dollars (about 850 USD.) I?ll include a recommended CPU, motherboard, Video card, RAM, Hard drives, Power supplies, and maybe even cooler and case options if I have time. So, without further adieu, the GUIDE!!!!!
Low End
Processor: There are many processor options available, ranging from the lowliest of the remnant S478 Celerons to the powerful AMD FX series. But seeing as how the comp you are building is most likely one being built for gaming, I?m going to choose a nice AMD processor. Most might not think of this, but for a low-end system a socket 939, AMD 3000+ (with a Venice core) will provide much more than the needed performance, and you can find them for around $150CDN (125USD). For our purposes, a 1.8GHz Athlon 64 will give us 64bit support for Vista, and plenty of horses to run anything the rest of this baby will throw at it.
Motherboard: there are tons of budget range motherboards available, with decent sets of features along with a sub $100CDN (sub 80USD) price tag. The one we've selected is the Asus A8N5X nForce4 socket 939 motherboard. It supports Athlon 64?s, has 4 DIMM (Dual Inline Memory Modules) slots that allow dual channel usage and up to 4 GB of total RAM. It even supports SATA hard drives, and has onboard audio, coupled with PCI-Express functionality for the latest generation of video cards. All this for about $80US, can be found here
RAM: nothing much to say about budget RAM, just get either one 512mb stick of ram or 2x256mb of plain old ?value? (i.e. not brand-name such as OCZ or Corsair) should do the trick, should cost no more than $50CDN.
Hard Drives: I?d suggest not using the SATA ports on this motherboard, as SATA drives are typically more expensive. Go with a 80-120 GB IDE/ATA (they?re the same thing, but some companies brand their products differently) this should run you nothing over $80CDN, sometimes as low as $60 when they?re on sale.
Power Supply O, great regulator of electrons, the most overlooked yet still critical part of the home pc, I shall pay homage to you humbleness. What I mean to say is, no matter what kind of computer you want to build, put in a solid power-supply (henceforth referred to as PSU or Power Supply Unit) one great deception among power supplies is that more wattage is all that matters. Well, this is false. Many cheap no-name PSU brands have wattage peaks that are as stated on the box under
PERFECT conditions. However, their normal max limits are typically much lower than brand-name ones. Go with one such as this . I know, at $100CDN it looks pricey, but its worth it, trust me. I bought a cheesy $40 400w PSU when I built my comp. But before I knew it, the thing burnt out for no good reason, save shoddy engineering. Since then I?ve gotten (now discontinued) 450w Enermax black PSU, and the voltages remain rock-solid, which is certainly a GOOD thing. It ran me a good $100, but in reality had I bought this before the other one; it would have saved me $40. But if you can?t find that exact one, anything around 400-450 watts from Enermax, Antec, or other famous brands should more than suffice. I know this is a budget build, but there will be a day when you want to upgrade, and if you don?t realize that your PSU can?t handle it, it?s a real pain in the behind.
Cooler and Cases: Well, any good old ATX case (starting at like, 20 bucks) will do for a budget build; you want it to run, not look particularly pretty. As for coolers, you might want to invest in an 80mm (or 92mm, depending on the case you choose and what fits). However, I would certainly NOT recommend anything above the stock cooling for anything, because they should keep anything you budget people will buy just fine.
Video Card: I thought I?d play hard to get with this one and put it at the end, because although important, all the other elements here are just as critical, and believe it or not some people read these guides just for video card ideas, buy something, and wonder why it doesn?t fit. For the purposed of this, I?m choosing a PCI-E solution to go with the PCI-Express motherboard. This is better twofold. First, PCI (which stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect) Express has 2x the bandwidth of AGP8x (4 GB/s vs. 2.1 GB/s). I would personally recommend an X1600Pro. This thing its pretty cheap, only about 150-200 dollars Canadian, and it?ll give you all the Shader Model 3.0 (aka SM 3.0) and HDR features, as long as the Avivo and other X1k series features, along with acceptable budget performance. The specific one I chose comes with a dual-slot HiS cooling system, available here
Let?s recap. We spent about 150 on the processor, 90 on the motherboard, 50 on the RAM, 80 on the hard drive, 100 on the PSU, let?s allow 50 for case, and 160 on the video card. This all adds up to $680 Canadian without taxes. Add 7% GST and 8% PST, and we get a total cost with tax of $782. Not bad eh? Now, I know I didn?t include a monitor, but for a budget build your really don?t need to upgrade it unless your monitor is truly atrocious. If this is the case, contact me personally (don't worry, i don't bite) as depending on your needs and wants the perfect one can be elusive. Well, that?s all for the low end, now unto mid-range.
Mid-End
Alright folks, now we?re onto the kind of computers that most avid gamers will buy. Something that can give them most of the eye candy at about 1280x1024 resolution. This section is here for you, my friends.
Processor: The processor I would recommend for the midrange is an Athlon 64 Socket 939 3700+. Make sure not to get the 3800+, it is similar in price, but has less cache and a faster clock speed. Why warn against it if it?s faster though, tacheon, for being an avid over clocker you make is seem as though faster is ALWAYS better isn?t it? No young grasshopper(s), you have much to learn. Although the 3800+ is clocked 200 MHz faster than the 3700+, it only has 512kb of L2 cache, half of that the 3700+ has. While this extra cache does not give quite as much performance as 200 MHz, its close. Plus, its easy to over clock (at least after spending a little time around me tongue.gif) the 3700+ up to (and past) stock 3800+ levels, which is essentially a 4000+ without the extra cost, seeing as the 3700+ is seen at under 300CDN, yet the 4000+ is around 420CDN.
Motherboard: Honestly folks, I?m going to leave the motherboard recommendation the same as budget, she?s a solid board if you can find her. Just take a peek at the post above this one for the info on it.
RAM: well now, I think that for midrange RAM we can change around our objectives a little bit. For this, I would recommend 2x512 MB, preferably a 2 pack matched specifically for dual channel. These usually cost around $120CDN, such as These What is dual channel you ask? Dual channel gives a small (but always wanted) performance increase, and that 1GB of RAM reduces hard-drive lag severely on many games. I?m talking like, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Battlefield 2, and other games where there are vast open areas. I don?t think at this stage of the game it?s necessary to splurge on big-name RAM though, just get something like Ultra or Kingston, with parts like these midrange ones they should deal with over clocking fine. If not, you can buy RAM heat spreaders for dirt cheap, like 5 bucks a pop.
Hard Drive: Welcome to SATA midrangers. Though more expensive, SATA has 2x the bandwidth of ATA133, and with that reduced load times and such. If you don?t mind getting a refurbished one, you can usually find 120-160 GB ones with 8-16 MB cache?s for about $80CDN. But if you want a lot of storage space and good performance, go for a 7200RPM, 8mb cache one such as This which will run you about $150 without the rebate.
Power Supply: One last holdover from the realm of budget, seeing as that was a solid PSU, which should give you no hassle, and $100 is easier to swallow in the midrange anyways.
Coolers: I?ve decided to just call this ?coolers? now, as cases come in all kinds of shapes, and how it looks is more personal Preference than anything else. But as far as cooling goes, I?d recommend a nice silent one, such as This one here . couple this with some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste(which can be found here)
and your CPU will be running silent and (hopefully) cool.
Video Card: oh yes, the moment you?ve all been waiting for, what will tach recommend for the MIDRANGE VIDEOCARD OF SPRING 2006? Although there was some competition, it was easy once I decided to give 2 choices. The First would be the nVidia 7600GT, a card that performs at the same level as a 6800 Ultra, and can be had for around 270-300 dollars CDN. The other option is the 7900GT. This thing is a great card, performance equal to that of a 7800GTX, and over clocking potential to boot, she?s a great card and has been spotted in the wild at about 420 CDN. This is a pretty big step, but the performance will follow if you want a midrange computer with one special shining part. Of course, both of these cards are capable of using HDR (High Dynamic Range) and SM 3.0, with excellent performance for medium resolutions.
Ok, so here is how it stands for the midrange section now: we got 300 for the processor, 90 for the motherboard, 120 for the RAM, 150 for the Hard drive, 100 for the power supply, and between 300 and 420 for the video card. This works out to between $1060 and $1200, in Canadian Dollars. With the aforementioned 15% tax, that?s going to run you a good $1220-1370, but well worth every penny. That?s all for the midrange, now onto monsters of silicon, the baddest of the bad, the pc?s that will make HD gaming look like Childs play, the High-end AKA extreme users.
High-End/Extreme
As a precursor to this part of what will be henceforth referred to as The Guide (hitchhikers anyone?) I wish to warn everyone that now is really NOT the time to upgrade to an extreme system unless you bathe in money, because this stuff is expensive and there are to be major feature advancements in the near future, specifically DirectX/Direct3d10. I know I know, in the pc gaming world nowadays theres always new advancements no one can keep up to, but this one is a BIG one. DX10 will revolutionize computer graphics folks. It?s got faster .dll?s, more efficient architecture, not to mention more stringent requirements for compatibility. So let me repeat, that if you want a high end system but don?t want to buy new stuff this coming January, then go ING bank style and ?save your money?. But for those among us who are blood lusting for performance, here it is. Welcome son, welcome to the Machine.
Processor: this may seem odd to some, but I?m not going Intel OR Athlon 64. oh no dear friends, this is not the time of standard girly-man processors, oh no. We?re talking server CPU?s, I?m talking Opteron?s. An Opteron 180 is a dual core @ 2.4 GHz, just like the 4800+, and has 2x1mb L2 cache. So what?s the difference, why should I pay more for the Opteron when I have awesome performance for less with the Athlon 64 X2. Well, it all has to do with quality. You see, Opteron?s are designed for server environments, with much more stress, and much less room for failure. So, the Opteron line is the best of the chips AMD can pump out (generally from FAB 30 in Dresden, Germany). What does this mean in terms of end-user advantages? Well, longer useable lifespan for sure, lower power consumption, less voltage, and the MOST important aspect of them, they are the sickest over clocking CPU?s known to mankind. Its very common to take an Opteron 165 with a stock speed of 1.8 GHz all the way to between 2.6 and 2.8GHz, which means that it meets of exceeds the speed of a stock Athlon 64 FX-60, which costs about 3x more. And seeing as the 180 has a core clock of 2.4GHz, its reasonable to expect a good 3.0 to 3.2 GHz out of this, which will DESTROY any Intel at gaming, no matter how fast the Intel is running. I mean, at 2.4 this thing is approximately equal to a 3.9GHz Pentium 4, so at 3.2 it will be unstoppable. However, this performance comes at the cost of a mid-range computer, going for about $1000 Canadian.
Motherboard: Young Padawons, it is now time to be come Jedi, no more of this cheap motherboard stuff, you?re too cool for that. For this, I?m Recommending the MSI K8N Diamond Plus SLi. It Supports 2 PCI-E 16x cards, good if you want to go SLi, but I don?t think that is the direction we want to go in this guide, for reasons which I?ll explain later. This thing has all the features you?ll ever need and the kitchen sink. It has onboard surround sound, onboard optical outputs, gigabit LAN, dual channel RAM etc. The price is kind of steep at 250 bucks, but its well worth having a great chipset with over clocking options to compliment your other beasts.
RAM: ok kiddies, its time to let it all hang out; we?re stepping into the big leagues here. I would go with 2x1GB sticks of high-performance, brand-name RAM here, something along the lines of Corsair TwinX 2x1024mb dual channel modules. They have tight timings and have tons of space, letting you have quick memory, and letting you enable highest textures on open games (think MMO?s, Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion, and Battlefield 2) for 375 dollars its pricey, but they?re worth it if you want to over clock everything to their maximum levels.
Hard Drive(s): With a very special thanks to Missing Ghost, we have a great idea for all the hardcore games. That would be RAID0 just get 2 of the SATA drives from the midrange category, and then click HERE to learn more from his guide.
Coolers: Well, here is where there are 2 ways to go. The first is top of the line air cooling; the second and more effective one is water-cooling. The reason I included both types is simple: Air is easy for just about anyone to install, however water can be a pain in the ass if you?re either unconfident or don?t know what you?re doing. For Air-cooling, a good copper Zalman is recommended, such as the CNSP9500, which you can view http://www.zalman.co.kr/ . Water cooling however is a different story, and there are tons of different kits that you can buy, and depending on your specific needs you should see a hardware specialist.
Video Card: Here it is, the culmination of the best visual processing units we have available to us mere mortals. There are 2 possible options, Single and Dual card. For Single, I would recommend an ATi Radeon X1900XTX, seeing as it has better SM 3.0 compatibility than any other card to date, has equal brute gaming force of an nVidia 7900GTX, yet is able to run both HDR and AA simultaneously, something the 7900GTX can?t (sometimes, depending on how the scene is being rendered). This is going to cost a pretty penny, and will range in price from 700 to 750 dollars Canadian. For the ultimate maximum Frames per Second (FPS), I would have to recommend 2x 7900GTX?s in SLi. ATi has a dual card solution called crossfire, but it is typically less effective due to less developer support, and the lack of quality motherboards needed to run it. So for now, I would have to go with the 7900GTX?s. of course, this is going to cost you 675-750 a card, so like 1350-1500 dollars Canadian. Well, that or a kidney tongue.gif
So that?s what I would pick to be on the top of the gaming frontier. But remember to take these high-end parts with a grain of salt, for with upcoming DX10 your Uber card won?t be able to run all the sexy new features. But if you have the cash to burn, then by all means take a crack at a system like this bad boy. Special thanks to MissingGhost as well for much-needed assistance with this section. This is tacheon, wishing you all the best.
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