One of the strengths of PC
gaming over console gaming is your ability to
customize your gaming experience. It's not as
hard as you might think and if you do it
yourself you could save a ton of money—and it's
kind of fun. Games for Windows - LIVE team
members RMEC and GFWModerator show how quick and
easy it is in the video below.
The video was edited, of
course, so there are some minor gaffs here and
there that were taken out to protect
GFWModerator's dignity. The total time to
assemble the PC was a little less than an hour.
A quick note about the video: It was shot in a
small room that exposed to the sun and quickly
became a bit of a sauna. You can see it taking a
toll on poor GFWModerator as the video goes on.
Let's watch!
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Here's what RMEC
put in to his rig:
The total cost was about
$1,000. Prices change frequently, sometimes even
day-to-day on things like RAM. If you were to
build RMEC's machine today, you might find some
things a little cheaper. Follow the links above
to get a handle on what you should be paying for
each component. RMEC got everything from one
supplier: Newegg.com.
Video Card
This is the component that
gets all the attention, and rightly so because
it's the real heart of your system. However, a
good strategy for building your PC is to
not
get the latest and greatest card but, rather,
the model that's just one below that level. This
is because the price difference between the card
that came out six months ago versus the one that
came out yesterday can be substantial, as the
manufacturer wants to get rid of last month's
inventory. The newest card may not quite justify the price
difference.
RMEC chose the Sapphire
Radeon for this reason. At the time of the
build, it wasn't the latest but it was more than
able to deliver jaw-dropping goodness and
remains so to this day.
CPU
What's true of video cards
can be true of CPUs, but here you might want to
plan ahead and buy a better CPU, perhaps even
the latest and greatest. This way, confident
that the CPU has you covered , you can swap out
your video cards as necessary with future
updates without having to get a new system.
RMEC chose the
Intel Core
2 Quad 2.4GHz 2x4mb because
an increasing number of programs are taking
advantage of quad computing. It wasn't so long
ago that quad cores were seen as novelties since
not a lot of applications took advantage of
them, but that's no longer the case. Spend a
little extra and get a good CPU. It'll outlast
your video card.
Motherboard
Usually a CPU and
motherboard are sold together outright or as
recommended pairs. By and large, you should be
good to go with those recommendations. Just be
sure the motherboard large enough to accommodate your video
cards and the heat sinks on your CPU and cards.
Case
This is not an entirely
cosmetic choice. Choose a case based on how it
manages airflow around super-hot components. The
best models draw in air from the bottom and then
provide a clear and easy path through the entire
case to vent hot air away at the top or out the
back. After you find good flow, then you can
pick based on how it looks.
Drives
Get the fastest hard drive
you're comfortable buying and don't forget to
get a DVD drive since games are still
distributed on disc.
The Future
We're going to update this article as time
goes on with fresher recommendations. How long
with RMEC's build last? Stay tuned to find out!
Have you built a PC? Tell
how it went in the
forums.
— Eric Haddock
Gamertag: Abashima