Gaming Computers: Fasten Your Seatbelts!
Del.icio.usBy Jeffrey Litvinoff
Personal Touch Computers
What are gaming computers?
Can you use a off the shelf computer for games?
Yes and no. Off the shelf computers lack the video and cpu power to run most reality type games.
First to build a great gaming machine , you need a great gaming video card . Theses cards are capable of making your games come alive and look and feel lifelike. Currently the Nvidia Geforce 8800 can run all the current games available today. The 8800 comes in different clock speeds and memory sizes , so the games you are playing or will be playing will determine what you need. All new games in the future will run only on Windows Vista and DirectX10. Vista has been designed with new groundbreaking graphics technology. DirectX 10 increases a game’s level of realism, enhancing details and complexity in gaming worlds, apply effects like dynamic lighting and weather, and much more. Another way of increasing your video horsepower is called SLI.
SLI is when you use two identical video cards and combine them to run as one video card. This is for the serious gamer. In order to run SLI you need a gamer motherboard. We recommend ASUS, the number 1 gaming motherboards (www.Asus.com) . Next the cpu processor has to be powerful enough to be able to handle the video card. A slower processor can hinder the performance of the video card and games. Intel Quad Core processor is simply four processors on one chip. So powerful and the price off their entry level Quad cord has come down from $899.00 eight months ago to currently around $350, great value. Hard drive choices will also play a huge role in performance. Hard drives are the slowest component in your computer. It has moving parts inside and until they come out with solid state hard drives with no moveable parts (at a reasonable price and size) they will always be the slowest part of your computer. To increase the speed you can you two identical hard drives and run a stripe raid. A stripe raid is where both hard drives are combined as one hard drive and data is spread out and written to both hard drives. Also install a large data hard drive and store all your large files on it. Keeping your operating system hard drive with as little as possible data on it will keep your computer running fast. Never ever user a cheap power supply . When gaming a power supply must be able to keep steady clean power to your video card. Stay with name brand power supplies like Thermaltake , or Enermax certified power supplies. Speaking of power, often most hardware problems are caused by bad power. Lots of people use surge protectors , but what happens when the power shuts off? Often it can damage your power supply , motherboard , hard drive or video card. What is needed is a UPS , with is a surge protector with a built in battery. The best UPS to buy are ones that can shut off your computer safely when you have a power failure.
All theses high power parts are going to run hot. A full size case , made out of aluminum is needed.
The front should have intake cooling fan , and the back should have a exhaust cooling fan for steady air flow. You must also wire all the power cords and data cables that are neat and don not interfere with the air flow. A side cooling fan is also needed the blows directly on the video card. Most gaming cases will have theses fan options , and in addition, should have fans that cool the hard drives . The best operating system to get for gaming would be the Vista Ultimate. The Ultimate comes with many multimedia and graphic functions . The backup features of Ultimate are excellent, and I would recommend backing up your computer before installing any new games or programs.
HAPPY GAMING! HT
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