Tsunami Gaming

Hello and Welcome to the New PC Designing Guide by Komet!

Since I'm such a nice guy, I'll update this for you guys. Also I'm feeling saucy at the moment and wanted to try something different, so here goes. The full version is available here at techbums.net and will fill in any gaps left here.

Stage 1: The basics
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You're going to need a nice motherboard to get things started. This is the point where you will need to choose between an AMD or Intel based system. If you're building anything but the most budget PC, at the moment Core 2 Duo is your only choice so for the sake of brevity I'm going to skip AMD altogether and jump straight into some decent C2D stuff. Since the majority of gaming PCs fall within the $750-$1250 range, I'll attempt to build to the masses with some hot stuff that's going to overclock and last.

So now that we've convieniently opted for a C2D build, we need a good motherboard. The foundation for a good motherboard is a good chipset, and the current hot chipsets for Core 2 Duo would be the Intel P35, nVidia 650i, and nVidia 680i (also Intel X38, unreleased). Now you need to choose what sort of features are important to you in a motherboard. Take into consideration the location and number of SATA ports, firewire support, whether you want SLI or Crossfire capablitity, that sort of thing.

If you choose Intel P35, you also have to decide between DDR2 and DDR3. DDR3 is a grand ripoff and regardless of clockspeed, it doesn't show much (if any) increase in terms of data throughput over DDR2 so there is little sense in buying a DDR3-only motherboard now. There are a pair of good DDR2 and DDR3 motherboards out, but several reviews have calculated their overclockability below the normal DDR2 boards. If you aren't an overclocker, those would certainly be a good way to go.

I give you two options: ASUS P5K-E and eVGA 122-CK-NF68-T1. Both of these are really strong boards packed with features and are sure to fulfill your wildest fantasies, etc.


Next you need to pick a cpu. Intel seems to be puking a new model of C2D on the market once every two weeks, but really there are only three worth considering. First would be the E4400 at $126. It has half the L2 cache of a real C2D but it's a great value for the price, especially if you plan on purchasing non-overclocking ram. Buy the E6550 if you can afford it, the extra $50 nets you a real Conroe that should overclock real high with good Micron D9 ram. If you're really into spending money and want some power, go for the Q6600. Most people get them to 3Ghz fairly easily on high end air.


You now need ram for the system. Ram is currently cheap on the market, and 2GB is an excellent amount for all situations, so that's how much we will be picking. Basically, there are two types of ram; Micron D9GMH and Everything Else. Everything else is generally utter sh*t but if you know how to play them you can on occasion get the valueram stuff to do DDR2 800 and a bit beyond. The valueram choice would be G.Skill 2GBNQ, and Micron D9 can be found in G.Skill 2GBHZ. Anything else is a gimmick.


I've witnessed great crimes and intolerable misinformation lately around here regarding DirectX 10 and the video cards which support said graphics extension. In a nutshell, DX9 is dead and all DX9 cards are obsolete. Period. No more discussion, those cards are over and there is no reason to purchase a DX9 card. So don't. If you only have $100 to spare for graphics or aren't really gaming, a Radeon HD2600XT or 8600GT are nice choices. Both of those cards are relatively as fast as the x1800gto or 7600GT, for comparison. If you have $150 for a video card, the 8600GTS is a good choice. Finally, if you have a monitor with a resolution equal to or less than 1920x1200 and really want to have some fun, meet my close personal friend the 8800GTS.

Stage 2: Extensions
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Power supplies are very important when building your new PC. This is the heart of your system; choose a bad heart and watch your PC die in a hunk of burning silicon. The first thing you should do is go to http://jonnyguru.com/ and read nearly everything he's written about PSUs. You'll learn a lot. I've written more about psus in my guide over at techbums. Anyways, the FSP 400w will be fine for all moderate builds with graphics cards equal to or less than an 8600GTS. If you have a big graphics card or lots of components you intend to run, consider an OCZ GameXStream 600w or Corsair 520HX. If you plan on running some sort of monster 8800GTX SLI or HD2900XT Crossfire machine, the Enermax Infiniti 720w is a wise decision.


Ok so now we have enough components to turn a machine on and play in the bios, but that's not a whole terrible lot of fun. Also, running it open without a case is dangerous, so you should probably get one. If you want to join the gamer PC bandwagon, you can't reall go wrong with an Antec 900. The Lian-Li PC-7 design is timeless and well equipped for a mid tower. If you want lots of room for a watercooling loop or other things, the Thermaltake Armor is good. There's a million cases out on the market so pick one you like. The more 120mm fan locations the better.

Optical drives. I'll keep this one quick. NEC 7170S. It's SATA and nice. I think there's a silver version too.

Hard drives are again up to user preference in terms of how much space you need. Generally the best deals can be found in the 320GB drives but 500GB drives are getting cheaper too. Also, the Western Digital 750GB drive is quicker than smaller single drives which is some good food for thought. I like Western Digital drives myself, but Seagate has 5 year warranties on all their products and their prices compete with Western Digital's 3 year warranty prices, so generally the builds I do incorporate Seagates unless there's a sale on WD drives.


That's it for parts, all you really need to build a tower. So, give me some feedback or something and I'll mess with it. I think it needs color but I'm feeling lazy. Drop me a line or stop by techbums.net for further assistance regarding the design and construction of the latest desktop hardware.

Matix wrote:Thanks for your suggestions, I think if I would to become mod for this section, I would probably make a dozen of other threads similair to this.