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Guide for Buying a Gaming Machine
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You are currently in Hardware, Internet, Networking, Comms and Security
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Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:12 pm Reply and quote this post
Hello people have been reading around the forum and have noticed alot of people asking about computers and graphics cards and which to buy and what to stay away from well hopfully this guide will give you abit of knowledge about what and what not to buy.

Now i know some of you may not know how to build your own machine but to be honest they are very easy to build the new stuff comes colour coordinated
not like the old motherboards which could not be overclocked in the bios and there was no colour coordination to tell you what wire goe's here and there.

So are you gonna buy a prebuilt machine or build your own?

LETS START

When buying/building a machine you obviously have a budget and with this guide am gonna try and keep you within your budget and also help you gain a decent gaming machine i will also provide some links to sites i use to buy computer hardware.

CPU

What type of CPU (Processor) do you want? AMD or Intel

AMD

Is the cheaper solution to processors now days but they still perform great in games and any other task that you want to perform.
(The thing to remember here is cheap)

Intel

Well what can i say about intel there dominating the CPU market right now with there new C2De (Core2DuoExtreme) which supports dual/quad core CPUS with great power but power comes with expense.
(The thing to remember here is Expense)

Conclusion

Ok so you have had a look at some CPU's and you have decided to get which ever you choose but another thing to look at (only if your building your machine) is the socket type that your CPU will socket into.

AMD you will normally get 1 of the following socket types (939 or AM2)

939 is the falling out of the picture now and are alot harder to find some of the later AMD CPU's where AM2 is the new socket for AMD with there release of the 6000+ series of CPU's.

Intel if your about to buy a new CPU and its Intel you will obviously be buying a LGA775.

Now every CPU as a Clock speed this is normally in Ghz (Unless where going back in time) so lets say you bought a AMD Opteron 165 Skt 939.

Clock Speed = 1.8Ghz
Cores = 2
Effective Clock = 3.6Ghz
FSB = 200
Multiplier = 9
9x200 = 1800

Thats basically how a dual core processor works for a quad core same as above but you will double the effective clock eg:

Clock speed = 1.8Ghz
Cores = 4
Effective Clock = 7.2Ghz
FSB = 200
Multiplier = 9
9x200 = 1800

LITLLE OVERCLOCKING

What would happen if we changed the FSB to 300? lets take a look

Changing that 1 FSB to 300 makes the following happen

Clock speed = 2.7Ghz
Cores = 4
Effective Clock = 10.8Ghz
FSB = 300
Multiplier = 9
9x200 = 2700

That is a basic overclocking dont think because you know this that you should do it dont this is a basic overclocking thing just showing you what FSB actaully is.
I will be doing a overclocking guide for people soon.

So am gonna show you a few CPU's 1 for those who dont wanna spend so much and 1 for those who dont really care.

CHEAP BUT GOOD

AMD

939


Open Box: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Toledo 2.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - OEM
Code:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103052R


AMD Opteron 165 Denmark 1.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Retail
Code:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103588


AM2

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail
Code:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103780


AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ 3.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail
Code:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103191


INTEL

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
Code:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115030


Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
Code:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017


Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Kentsfield 3.0GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
Code:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115026


Remember Newegg only ships within the USA

Heres some sites other sites:

Code:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/
http://www.scan.co.uk/
http://www.ebuyer.com/


So we have took alook at certain CPU's i would suggest the following if you do not plan to overclock which will be a guide i will post soon.

- Get a dual/quad core CPU (New games now support Dual/Quad optimization)

- Try and get a CPU that as 2.6Ghz Clock speed 5.2Ghz Effective clock speed (this will help for future games)

- Go with what you can afford (Buying a cheap CPU is just as good as the competition if you plan on Overclocking)

- Try to get a non stock HSF (Heatsink Fan) This will also help if you plan to overclock.


MOTHERBOARDS

Am not gonna go into every detail about MOBO (Motherboard) since we are only gaming and you just need a MOBO thats gonna give great performance and is as futureproof as possible.

Todays motherboards come packed with everything you need already installed onto the actual board rather then having to go out buy a soundcard, NIC card and in some cases VGA adaptor but since this is a tut for gaming PC's where gonna stay away from the boards that come with a VGA (Video Processor) built in.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM A MOBO?

Socket Type (Intel or AMD Support)
SLI or Crossfire (Nvidia or ATI)

these are the 2 you need to think about since your the buyer and this all depends on what you like and who you think performs best for you.

SLI and Crossfire

SLI (Scalable Link Interface) is nvidias way of making 2 GPU's operate at the same time dont think oh i have SLI now i have double the performance because this is not what SLI doe's SLI basically rendors sections of the screen using 2 cards so 1 GPU will be rendering all the graphics on the top part of the screen and the 2nd GPU doing the same for the bottom part of the screen which increases overall performance.

SLI works best with big 22" or bigger monitors if you get SLI configuration in your system yet you only have a 17" monitor this is pointless since your GPU is not gonna ask for any assistance from the other GPU and yall maybe be using around 10-20% of other GPU.

SLI works based on resolution so the higher your screen resolution the more performance you will gain from SLI.

Since i have spoke about this in the motherboard section i will not mention it again within the GPU section.

Crossfire is pretty much the same as SLI its just ATI's version.

So if your gonna buy a MOBO try and get 1 that as SLI Support basically it will say 2 or more PCI-Express 16x Slots.
NOTE: SLI shares the bandwidth meaning 2 cards in 2 PCI-E 16x slots will be sharing 16x bandwidth between them you will not be gained 32x.

So when buying a new system/board try to get 1 that supports SLI.
here is an example board that is great for gaming but is pricey:
Code:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131074


Cheaper SLI Board:
Code:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153075


RAM (Random access memory)

RAM is pretty much the cheapest upgrade you can do to your system and it increases performance at an incredible rate but now its not just about how much RAM you have its about the speed that the RAM talks to the CPU new ram is coming out all the time most new MOBO and gamers are now using DDR2/DDR3 at this moment in time i would stay away from DDR3 since its not all its knocked up to he and stay with DDR/DDR2 depending on how much your willing to spend.

DDR SDRAM - double-data-rate synchronous dynamic random access memory

So DDR what is it?

Remember we was talking about FSB (Front side bus) earlier well DDR increases the FSB without actaully increasing the FSB.

SDR - Single Data Rate - 100Mhz = 100Mhz
DDR - Double Data Rate - 100Mhz = 200Mhz

So DDR is like a dualcore CPU it as a clock speed 100Mhz and an effective clock speed 200Mhz.

then you have DDR2/3 same as above but they run at a faster speed again.

In systems today i would recommend using a minimum of 2GB RAM.

DUAL CHANNEL - Is basically making RAM run and talk to the CPU faster instead of 64bits they operate at 128bits.

You will normally see on your MOBO that your RAM slots are coloured these colours normally indicate the slots for dual channel for example:

SLOT1
SLOT2

SLOT3
SLOT4


Slot 1/2 = dual channel
Slot 3/4 = dual channel

SLOT1
SLOT2
SLOT3
SLOT4

Slot 1/3 = Dual Channel
Slot 2/4 = Dual Channel

In most cases when you first boot your computer it will tell you if your memory is running in dual channel or look inside the motherboard manual.

FINISH THE REST SOON SINCE AM BUSY WITH OTHER THINGS BUT WE ARE NEARLY DONE

Contributed by phillipg10, iVirtua Active Member
100 iVirtua Loyalty Points • View ProfileSend Private MessageBack to Top

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