Nihilum - MMORPG Gaming Guild and Community - View Single Post

arne1612 · 1st June 2008, 08:57 PM

Note: This information might be outdated, I will update it soon.

Hello readers, I decided to write a topic about choosing a new game PC, because there are a lot of threads about this lately.

Nevah buy a computer in a store, complete and all, those are way to expensive.... we will choose our own parts in this guide

Ok, there are a few things we need:

Motherboard, Proccessor, RAM Memory, Harddisk, Graphic Card, Power Supply Unit, Case, DVD Reader/Writer. I will maintain the sequence I just named.

Motherboard.

Ok, so what Motherboard are we going to take? MSI? Asus? The brand doesn't really matters(most of the time).... But the speccs do!

For example: You want to have 2 Graphic Cards, Wi-Fi, LAN, 7.1 Sound and you want to overclock your Computer.
In that case you need a motherboard which supports SLI(2 Graphic Cards) Wi-Fi, LAN, 7.1 Sound, and a Nvidia Chipset on your motherboard is nice for overclocking(750i/780i/790i preferably)

Second, if your proccessor, E8400 for example, is 775 Socket, your motherboard needs to support that aswell.
Old motherboards won't support that proccesor, its like giving a mage plate drops...

Third: Make sure your motherboard has enough PCI(-E) slots for all the stuff you are filling it with, like Soundcards, Networkcards, and its also nice to have some free USB slots besides your mouse and Keyboard.
A good motherboard will cost you about 100/150 euro, and can make a difference in performance.

Hardware tips:
Asus P5K Premium
MSI P7N Platinum (For SLI)

Proccessor

Mkay, what are we going to take, AMD or Intel? Go Go Intel, These are much more common, slightly better.

So whatt do we need to pay attention to?

First of all, take dual core, much better for gaming than quad core.
There are (almost)no games who support quad core yet, especially not WoW.
Also, it will take about 2/3 years before we will see a lot of good quad core games, so for now take dual core.

If you also do a lot of multi tasking, like Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, WoW, Bit torrent client, Xfire, IM, browsing all at same time, you might want to consider quad core, but most of the time dual core will do just fine, also because they have higher speeds.
A good
A good processor will cost you about 140-300 euro.

Hardware tips:
E8400 for dual core. (Clocks very easy to 3.6GHz, even with stock cooler)
Q6600 / Q9450, depends on budget. (Q6600 clocks easily to 3GHz)

Q6600 vs. E8400: E8400 wins with gaming, Q6600 with video rendering, multi tasking, but E8400 is a 45nm processor, which works much more efficient than Q6600, which is 65nm.

For processor cooler:
Scythe Mugen Infinity.
This is a very good cooler, not very expensive, but you do not need this if you have good airflow and you don't want to OC.
Stock cooler is good, but Scythe Mugen is better for OC'ing.
A good processor cooler will cost about 20-40 euro.

RAM Memory

What to take?
What do you want to do with the PC... overclocking? gaming?

At this moment your best choice will be 4GB PC6400(PC6400 means 800MHz)
For gaming 4GB is very nice, and you won't need any new RAM for a while.

If your going to overclock, you need to buy RAM with higher speed, 1066MHz/1333MHz.

Heatspipes are nice to have, a good set, 4GB 800MHz will cost you about 70 euro.

Harddisk

Mkay, a lot of HD's to chose from, but Samsung is know for making very good and fast drivers.
Go for Samsung Spinpoint F1, 640GB or 1TB.
Those 2 are very fast, because the 640GB edition only has 2 spinning disks inside, each 320GB, and 1TB edition has 3 spinning disks, 333GB each, the higher amount on 1 disk, the better the HD is, Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB is the only HD of 1TB, which has 3 spinning disks, all others have 4, so that means they are slower.
In my language we call those spinning disk "Platters" but I have no idea how they are called in english

If you have too much money, and you want to spend some more, for better performance, go for RAID-0.
What is raid 0? You take 2 the same HD's, set them up in RAID 0, that way they both write at same time.

If you make a stupid blog about computers, and you save it, both HD's save a piece of the file.
So that way it only takes half the time it normally costs. (Ofcourse its not exactly 100% speed increase, like 85/90%)
A good HD will cost you about 60-110 euro.

Hardware tips:
Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB
Samsung Spinpoint F1 640GB

Graphic Card

UPDATE: Ati HD4870/HD4850 are very good graphiccard's, best bang for buck! They also scale very nice in SLI.

What graphic card to take?

Depends a lot of what games you will be playing, and what level (Casual or hardcore?)

For World of Warcraft I'd say 8600GT or higher, WoW with settings on high doesn't looks to good, but low is even worse.
For high end gaming on WoW, I would take 8800GT, to experience every single encounter the best, high FPS is very usefull in high end raiding.

For the newest games I would say, 9600GT SLI, or just 8800GT/9800X2.
If you are aiming for the best and the best, take nVidia GTX280/260, or HD4870 in SLI.

I'm a big fanboy of 9600GT SLI, this card really p0wns in SLI.

82% average performance increase.

Also, when buying graphic card, make sure you know what kind of cooler it has, and what kind of cooler you want, passive or active?

9600GT 512mb edition is pretty much the same as 1gb, just a waste of money to take 1gb edition.

Hardware tips:
nVidia 8800GT.
nVidia GTX260/280.
nVidia 9600GT SLI.
nVidia 8600GT for casual WoW players.
nVidia 9800X2
Ati HD4870/4850

PSU

What PSU(Power Supply Unit) to take?

Depends a lot on you system, for SLI you need a PSU wich is compatible with SLI.

If you want to calculate the amount of watt your PSU will need, go to : eXtreme Power Supply Calculator v2.5
Always make sure you calculate it good, so consider upgrades in the future, add like 30-40 to the calculated amount just to be sure.

Make sure you take an A-quality brand PSU, cheap PSU's gank over 1000's of PC's every year.
Ofcourse when buying your own computer always post your build on a hardware forum, just to have them check everything out...
For the dutch people here, Hardware.info has a very nice forum which you can ask questions on.

A good PSU, 550/650 watt will cost you about 70-80 euro, but its worth it!
If you buy a case which already has a PSU, buy a new one, if PSU is included its a low quality one....
DO NOT BUY A PSU IF ITS UNDER 40 euro! Those really suck, break fast, screw up whole computer.

Hardware tips:

Generally High quality PSU brands:

* Antec (except for Smartpower/Basiq)
* Corsair
* Cooler Master (iGreen)
* Enermax
* Etasis
* OCZ
* PC Power & Cooling
* Seasonic
* Silverstone
* Tagan
* Thermaltake
* Xclio (Greatpower/Stablepower)
* Zalman
* Zippy

Please do not buy a PSU of any other brand, its for your own good....

Case

Mkay, ofcourse we do want a nice case, one without PSU preferably, and with very good airflow. Ofcourse don't forget fans with LED's, nice blue lights always make you score at the lady's!
Airflow is very important, Antec Nine Hundred for example:

2 front fans, 120mm, blue LED.
1 on top, 200mm blue LED (w00t, pimp my computer)
1 rear fan, 120mm, blue LED.

I'm a big fan of Antec Nine Hundred, its cheap(95 euro), looks really good, very good airflow.
Just make sure the case is big enough for all the parts, looks nice, has good airflow.
A good case will cost you about 65-250 euro.

Hardware tips:
Antec Nine Hundred, 100% chance you will get laid on first date!

DVD Reader/Writer

Not much to tell about this part, just go for Samsung SH-S203D, cheap, nice speeds.

Hardware tips:
Samsung SH-S203D
Why this writer? its only 20 bucks...(euro)

Make sure you chose the right colour tho, you wouldn't want a white case with black DVD writer... or a blog with pink text....

Mkay, what more we need? Well a mouse would be nice, keyboard, headset, maybe soundcard...

Quick advise:

Soundcard: If you have GOOD headset, and a good 5.1 set: Hell yeah.
Headset: Sennheiser has epic sound quality, doesn't even needs to be expensive, 30 euro will do.
Keyboard: G15 v2 for sure... little display can be usefull, not always, but all buttons have lights in them, so whiping your ass off in Sunwell, 2 o'clock in the night, is not your keyboards fault anymore.
Mouse: G9/Razorhead.

For TFT monitor:
Watch reviews... some hardware reviews even test the real ms, and the real contrast, brightness...
22 inch widescreen ftw for WoW.

Last words:
If you want to check a product, read reviews! There are a lot of hardware forum's, for dutch users Tweakers.net and Hardware.info.
If anyone has anything to add, you can PM me, but please, do not PM me for hardware question, go to a national forum in your own language instead, there are a bunch in each language, and you will always understand those better, and they can help you find the cheapest shop to order the hardware.

Note:
If you don't have a lot of experience building PC's, just pay the store 50 bucks, and they will do it for you

1st June 2008, 08:57 PM	#1 (permalink)
arne1612 Knight Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 368	HOW TO: Choosing new computer/hardware. Note: This information might be outdated, I will update it soon. Hello readers, I decided to write a topic about choosing a new game PC, because there are a lot of threads about this lately. Nevah buy a computer in a store, complete and all, those are way to expensive.... we will choose our own parts in this guide Ok, there are a few things we need: Motherboard, Proccessor, RAM Memory, Harddisk, Graphic Card, Power Supply Unit, Case, DVD Reader/Writer. I will maintain the sequence I just named. Motherboard. Ok, so what Motherboard are we going to take? MSI? Asus? The brand doesn't really matters(most of the time).... But the speccs do! For example: You want to have 2 Graphic Cards, Wi-Fi, LAN, 7.1 Sound and you want to overclock your Computer. In that case you need a motherboard which supports SLI(2 Graphic Cards) Wi-Fi, LAN, 7.1 Sound, and a Nvidia Chipset on your motherboard is nice for overclocking(750i/780i/790i preferably) Second, if your proccessor, E8400 for example, is 775 Socket, your motherboard needs to support that aswell. Old motherboards won't support that proccesor, its like giving a mage plate drops... Third: Make sure your motherboard has enough PCI(-E) slots for all the stuff you are filling it with, like Soundcards, Networkcards, and its also nice to have some free USB slots besides your mouse and Keyboard. A good motherboard will cost you about 100/150 euro, and can make a difference in performance. Hardware tips: Asus P5K Premium MSI P7N Platinum (For SLI) Proccessor Mkay, what are we going to take, AMD or Intel? Go Go Intel, These are much more common, slightly better. So whatt do we need to pay attention to? First of all, take dual core, much better for gaming than quad core. There are (almost)no games who support quad core yet, especially not WoW. Also, it will take about 2/3 years before we will see a lot of good quad core games, so for now take dual core. If you also do a lot of multi tasking, like Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, WoW, Bit torrent client, Xfire, IM, browsing all at same time, you might want to consider quad core, but most of the time dual core will do just fine, also because they have higher speeds. A good A good processor will cost you about 140-300 euro. Hardware tips: E8400 for dual core. (Clocks very easy to 3.6GHz, even with stock cooler) Q6600 / Q9450, depends on budget. (Q6600 clocks easily to 3GHz) Q6600 vs. E8400: E8400 wins with gaming, Q6600 with video rendering, multi tasking, but E8400 is a 45nm processor, which works much more efficient than Q6600, which is 65nm. For processor cooler: Scythe Mugen Infinity. This is a very good cooler, not very expensive, but you do not need this if you have good airflow and you don't want to OC. Stock cooler is good, but Scythe Mugen is better for OC'ing. A good processor cooler will cost about 20-40 euro. RAM Memory What to take? What do you want to do with the PC... overclocking? gaming? At this moment your best choice will be 4GB PC6400(PC6400 means 800MHz) For gaming 4GB is very nice, and you won't need any new RAM for a while. If your going to overclock, you need to buy RAM with higher speed, 1066MHz/1333MHz. Heatspipes are nice to have, a good set, 4GB 800MHz will cost you about 70 euro. Harddisk Mkay, a lot of HD's to chose from, but Samsung is know for making very good and fast drivers. Go for Samsung Spinpoint F1, 640GB or 1TB. Those 2 are very fast, because the 640GB edition only has 2 spinning disks inside, each 320GB, and 1TB edition has 3 spinning disks, 333GB each, the higher amount on 1 disk, the better the HD is, Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB is the only HD of 1TB, which has 3 spinning disks, all others have 4, so that means they are slower. In my language we call those spinning disk "Platters" but I have no idea how they are called in english If you have too much money, and you want to spend some more, for better performance, go for RAID-0. What is raid 0? You take 2 the same HD's, set them up in RAID 0, that way they both write at same time. If you make a stupid blog about computers, and you save it, both HD's save a piece of the file. So that way it only takes half the time it normally costs. (Ofcourse its not exactly 100% speed increase, like 85/90%) A good HD will cost you about 60-110 euro. Hardware tips: Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 640GB Graphic Card UPDATE: Ati HD4870/HD4850 are very good graphiccard's, best bang for buck! They also scale very nice in SLI. What graphic card to take? Depends a lot of what games you will be playing, and what level (Casual or hardcore?) For World of Warcraft I'd say 8600GT or higher, WoW with settings on high doesn't looks to good, but low is even worse. For high end gaming on WoW, I would take 8800GT, to experience every single encounter the best, high FPS is very usefull in high end raiding. For the newest games I would say, 9600GT SLI, or just 8800GT/9800X2. If you are aiming for the best and the best, take nVidia GTX280/260, or HD4870 in SLI. I'm a big fanboy of 9600GT SLI, this card really p0wns in SLI. 82% average performance increase. Also, when buying graphic card, make sure you know what kind of cooler it has, and what kind of cooler you want, passive or active? 9600GT 512mb edition is pretty much the same as 1gb, just a waste of money to take 1gb edition. Hardware tips: nVidia 8800GT. nVidia GTX260/280. nVidia 9600GT SLI. nVidia 8600GT for casual WoW players. nVidia 9800X2 Ati HD4870/4850 PSU What PSU(Power Supply Unit) to take? Depends a lot on you system, for SLI you need a PSU wich is compatible with SLI. If you want to calculate the amount of watt your PSU will need, go to : eXtreme Power Supply Calculator v2.5 Always make sure you calculate it good, so consider upgrades in the future, add like 30-40 to the calculated amount just to be sure. Make sure you take an A-quality brand PSU, cheap PSU's gank over 1000's of PC's every year. Ofcourse when buying your own computer always post your build on a hardware forum, just to have them check everything out... For the dutch people here, Hardware.info has a very nice forum which you can ask questions on. A good PSU, 550/650 watt will cost you about 70-80 euro, but its worth it! If you buy a case which already has a PSU, buy a new one, if PSU is included its a low quality one.... DO NOT BUY A PSU IF ITS UNDER 40 euro! Those really suck, break fast, screw up whole computer. Hardware tips: Generally High quality PSU brands: * Antec (except for Smartpower/Basiq) * Corsair * Cooler Master (iGreen) * Enermax * Etasis * OCZ * PC Power & Cooling * Seasonic * Silverstone * Tagan * Thermaltake * Xclio (Greatpower/Stablepower) * Zalman * Zippy Please do not buy a PSU of any other brand, its for your own good.... Case Mkay, ofcourse we do want a nice case, one without PSU preferably, and with very good airflow. Ofcourse don't forget fans with LED's, nice blue lights always make you score at the lady's! Airflow is very important, Antec Nine Hundred for example: 2 front fans, 120mm, blue LED. 1 on top, 200mm blue LED (w00t, pimp my computer) 1 rear fan, 120mm, blue LED. I'm a big fan of Antec Nine Hundred, its cheap(95 euro), looks really good, very good airflow. Just make sure the case is big enough for all the parts, looks nice, has good airflow. A good case will cost you about 65-250 euro. Hardware tips: Antec Nine Hundred, 100% chance you will get laid on first date! DVD Reader/Writer Not much to tell about this part, just go for Samsung SH-S203D, cheap, nice speeds. Hardware tips: Samsung SH-S203D Why this writer? its only 20 bucks...(euro) Make sure you chose the right colour tho, you wouldn't want a white case with black DVD writer... or a blog with pink text.... Mkay, what more we need? Well a mouse would be nice, keyboard, headset, maybe soundcard... Quick advise: Soundcard: If you have GOOD headset, and a good 5.1 set: Hell yeah. Headset: Sennheiser has epic sound quality, doesn't even needs to be expensive, 30 euro will do. Keyboard: G15 v2 for sure... little display can be usefull, not always, but all buttons have lights in them, so whiping your ass off in Sunwell, 2 o'clock in the night, is not your keyboards fault anymore. Mouse: G9/Razorhead. For TFT monitor: Watch reviews... some hardware reviews even test the real ms, and the real contrast, brightness... 22 inch widescreen ftw for WoW. Last words: If you want to check a product, read reviews! There are a lot of hardware forum's, for dutch users Tweakers.net and Hardware.info. If anyone has anything to add, you can PM me, but please, do not PM me for hardware question, go to a national forum in your own language instead, there are a bunch in each language, and you will always understand those better, and they can help you find the cheapest shop to order the hardware. Note: If you don't have a lot of experience building PC's, just pay the store 50 bucks, and they will do it for you Last edited by arne1612 : 3rd October 2008 at 06:45 PM.