Your Next Gaming PC (Part I)
Gamers, it's that time of the year again. No, it's not tax time, nor is it time for Britney to give the world another 'muff shot' (thank God), but it is time for gamers to seriously consider their next PC upgrade. Crysis and a whole host of next-generation games almost demand that we upgrade. If you are like me, you are probably at the wit's end of your AGP-based motherboard lifecycle and are starting to seriously consider moving to console gaming.
In an effort to save you from yourself, I've put together a list of components you should probably consider for building your next PC. Don't worry, in the next few parts of this series, we'll get photos of the build in action and the results.
Sadly, this is 'as we go,' so if it doesn't work out, you'll see me eating my words an article or two from now. I've done extensive research, poured over benchmarks, and scoured the non-porn part of the 'net (who knew that existed?) to bring you what I think you should stick into your next PC.
For those of you that wonder why my opinion matters: I'm not getting these parts for free, and will end up using them as my new gaming rig. If anyone has a lot to lose for picking bad parts, it's me.
One final note before we dive into the madness: This PC reflects the cost of building a new PC from the ground up. If you are a miser (that's the polite term for 'cheapskate'), then you can always cannibalize some of the components from your current PC, notably the case, optical drive, floppy drive, operating system, and cables. In my case (no pun intended), I need to install Windows XP for gaming, so I ditched Ubuntu, and my cost will reflect that. (Author's Note: In a future article, I'll revisit Transgaming's Cedega with this rig, and see how it fares.)
Methodology
This PC is meant to be a respectable gaming PC that leaves room for incremental, yearly upgrades. My upgrading schedule usually goes motherboard & RAM -> video card -> CPU at 8 to 12 month intervals. I do this for various reasons; the first is that if you buy a high-end video card now, you won't need to upgrade it as quickly as you will if you buy the cheap versions of some video cards (more on that later). The CPU is less important than the RAM (especially since the price of high-end CPUs has gone down considerably in recent months). You could replace the CPU and RAM at the same time, but with the right planning, you won't need to in order to stay competitive.
CPU
Since the entire system will revolve around the CPU, it only makes sense to start there. I have been an AMD fanboy since the K6, and even my last gaming rig had an AMD Athlon XP 3000+. But (and it's a substantial but) Intel is kicking AMD squarely in the nuts when it comes to CPU cost for performance. If the reviews lie, then everyone is in on it. Even after knocking AMD down with the Core 2 Duo series, Intel continued to steal AMD's lunch money by lowering the cost of their processors (in some cases by more than 50%) and increasing the front side bus speed from 1066 mHz to 1300 mHz!
Needless to say, the processor of choice for this rig is an Intel, but the question quickly became, which Intel processor to choose? The final product is a gaming rig (and not a video editing rig, which would have totally different considerations), so I needed to look at where I could get the most bang for my buck, as it were. I thought about going Quad Core, but as you can see, Quad Core provides marginal gains for what (ultimately) is hundred of dollars more spent on a processor, RAM, and Motherboard. Once the Intel chipset stops shifting, it makes sense to invest in the future 'X38' or 'X48' chipset -- but for now, stick with the P35 if you are buying Intel. By the time that happens, the gaming PC will be closer to the end of its half-life, and we'll be able to have a discussion about your next next gaming PC. I can't wait.
In the end, I chose the Intel Core 2 Duo E6750. First, I like the front side bus speed (although I won't utilize it fully -- more on that later), but I especially like the price -- under $200 for the CPU that currently beats out all AMD processors.
Cost: $194.99
Motherboard
The motherboard was a tough decision. In the order of importance, my decision revolved around three main possibilities:
- Stick with a DDR2 motherboard
- Spend more money and pick a DDR2/DDR3 capable motherboard
- Go with a DDR3 motherboard
The problem with DDR3 is that, currently, the latency speeds are way too high, even with the higher clock speeds, and this rig is about bang for the buck, not early adoption. When the price for DDR3 comes down, I'll be able to incrementally upgrade the RAM to DDR3. In the end, I chose Gigabyte because of their solid state capacitor motherboards. For those of you that didn't have the 'pleasure' of building PCs in the 2002-2003 time frame, the capacitors on motherboards from a lot of manufacturers were bursting on customers and it affected motherboards from various manufacturers, though few have admitted to it at this point. During this time frame (and later in 2004/2005), I witnessed many motherboards from a certain juggernaut PC manufacturer go through the exact same issue, and that led me to believe this problem was much bigger than previously thought. Obviously, it isn't easy to prove. However, I digress.
Since then, I've been rather choosy about motherboards and will gladly spend an extra $50 USD to get a motherboard from a 'reputable' manufacturer. To this end, I chose the Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 Motherboard. The main reason for this purchase was its support for both DDR2/DDR3. This will make future upgrades less costly and easier to conduct without having to reinstall the OS (due to Hardware Abstraction Layer problems vis-à-vis Windows).
Cost: $149.99
RAM
I chose to stick with DDR2 until the latency issues with DDR3 are resolved. The price of Ballistic RAM is much lower than it used to be and, as such, it became my #1 choice for RAM. Feel free to deviate, but much like any other component in your system, don't skimp. You'll regret it if you do. I chose a 2GB kit (1GBx2), Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-8500 memory module.
Cost: $109.99 (ZipZoomFly.com)
Video Card
The video card (for a gamer) is the integral component in a system. It is our gem of e-cred, as it were. Some gamers (who shall not be named!) believe it is acceptable to use the lesser video cards. Verily, I say unto thee, he who doest this and is caught in public forums with his lesser video cards shall be shunned. Amen. So let us say it from the mountain tops: Thou shall not use the 8600 GT when the 8800 version is available. Normally, video card manufacturers keep the higher-end model numbers for the 'better' cards, and the lower-end model numbers for the consumer cards. Here is a good rule of thumb: If you can buy it at Best Buy, it isn't a great video card. I'm not picking on Best Buy, or brick-and-mortar stores in general, but they normally do not stock the high-end video cards simply because very few people would buy them. Fry's Electronics is exempt from this ruling. The 8800 GT may become an exception to this rule with its low cost and high performance value.
The 8800 Ultra is the highest-end video card on the market right now with the GTX version as a close second. The GTS-640MB and GTS-320MB represent the 'mainstream' high-end cards. The best offering from ATi, as of this writing, is the X2900XTX, which competes with the 320MB version of the 8800 GTS.
With this hierarchy in mind, knowing that the 8800 GT beats out the 8800 GTS 640MB board at $100 less in price should give you piece of mind. I know I feel better sleeping on one hundred $1 dollar bills at night. I've said this elsewhere, but it is doubly so for your video card: Do not skimp here. Do not say, "Well, the 8600 GT is cheaper." The benchmarks do not lie. See your itty-bitty 8500 GT? Yeah, that's it at the bottom of the list. Oh, you have an 8600 GTS? That's right above it, near the word "FAIL."
For the Nvidia OEM overclocked Geforce 8800 GT, I spent $299.99. I could have waited a few weeks and spent the MSRP of $250 on a non-overclocked version, but in the words of the Tigerdirect.com customer service guy named 'Brian' that I talked to, "Everyone wants this damned card."
Cost: $299.99 - (MSRP - $249.99)
Hard Drive
Normally, I'd spew some remark about how "X" brand beats "Y" brand, and "stay away from brand Z," but I can't do that anymore. I've been around long enough to have problems with all of the top three hard drive manufacturers: Seagate, Maxtor, and Western Digital. Each of them has had issues in the past, and the only thing that separates the three is their customer service. You may as well roll dice on which one you want to use because the MTBF is never as long as what you want it to be. For my system, and since it is only a gaming system, I chose the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0GB/s HDD. For $150 dollars more, you could have a killer RAID 0+1 system, but that wouldn't make it a budget PC system, now would it? As an side note, stay away from RAID 0. It may sound cool, but it won't sound so cool when you are sweating bullets because one of your hard drives decided to crash on you and show you how short the MTBF can really be.
In short, choose the brand that suits you. Look for a good latency time (<8ms is great), a good cache size (they get to 8MB and up now), and any one of the big three manufacturers will be fine.
Cost: $53.99
Operating System
Ironically, I'm typing this article from my old gaming PC, now loaded with Ubuntu. Normally I'd give Microsoft my favorite finger and stick with Ubuntu, but we just can't do that yet with gaming. I had to ditch an article a year ago because I just couldn't get acceptable results (read: no worky) to show Transgaming's Cedega as a viable alternative. Maybe something has changed in the past year that warrants another look. After I get settled in to my new gaming rig, I'll take a few articles and go over the highlights of Linux gaming. It's a subject that needs exploration, especially with the cost of Windows XP Professional.
I chose Windows XP Professional because of the extra features it offers over Windows XP Home Edition. If you do not need those extra features, then Windows XP Home edition will work well, especially considering that both Operating Systems support multi-core processors.
Cost: $139.99 (OEM - TigerDirect.com)
Power Supply
I feel like a broken record here, but it's of Über-importance that I mention this: Don't get a cheap power supply. Just don't do it. Don't get a case with a power supply unless you intend to take the power supply out. Don't even think of buying a power supply that costs less than $100. There are many good choices, but you want to be sure that your power supply supports the voltage, wattage and amperage needed for your video card. The 8800 GT, for example, requires 20A across two 12v rails. That means that if you have two 12V rails that only pump out 15A each, you are getting really close to problems because there isn't enough headroom for efficiency.
I (sort of) broke the rule of "name brand only" power supplies by picking up the XION Supernova XON-600F14R-201 ATX12V 600W power supply. I've never heard of the company, but I am willing to take a chance and dive on the proverbial grenade for you, dear reader. I was interested in the 'modular' configuration of this power supply, and the $50 mail-in rebate didn't hurt either.
Cost: $109.99
Case
From the outset, I don't believe in fancy, 'nice' cases. To me, if I want more headroom or better airflow in a case, then I'll MacGyver the thing myself. It's more fun that way. I normally will buy a case that is between $39 and $59 and modify it to meet my needs. In the past, I've removed hard drive housing, made custom bays, added frontal airflow, and installed a custom-made cat hair catcher to keep cat hair from getting into my case.
That having been said, a friend of mine iterated that a good quality case can result in lower temperatures for your system. With a gaming rig, that is especially important. However, as excess noise isn't a factor in my system, I don't mind adding another fan if need be.
Cost: $39.99
Closing Thoughts
ComponentPriceLinkworld 3210-04-C2628 Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail$27.99Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail$149.99 Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6750 - Retail$194.99BL2KIT12864AA1065 Ballistix 2GB PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) DDR2 Memory$100.99NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT Overclocked Video Card - 512MB DDR3$299.99XION Supernova XON-600F14R-201 ATX12V 600W Power Supply - Retail$109.99Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3160815AS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM$53.99Lite-On 20x LH-20A1S DVD Drive$34.99Samsung Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - OEM$6.99Windows XP Professional - OEM$139.99Total:$1119.90
The parts have been ordered, and most of them have arrived. Due to a SNAFU on my end (I ordered the wrong motherboard -- the regular version instead of the DDR2/DDR3 version), I won't get my motherboard before 26 November 2007. I'll take pictures of the goodies for the next article, and detail my build and any initial problems. The final article will detail benchmarks and any regrets I have about my build.
Stay tuned!©2007 TeamWarfare.com
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