| So you're into gaming, and you're looking to turn | | | | games will most likely be sluggish if your |
| that shabby computer into a gaming powerhouse? | | | | equipment is that old. Regular DDR is good enough |
| You don't necessarily need an expensive gaming | | | | for gaming, it just doesn't have the throughput |
| computer though, you just need some decent | | | | that DDR2 does. |
| gaming hardware. | | | | Motherboards |
| If you don't exactly know what gaming hardware | | | | Today's fastest motherboards have faster Front |
| is, I've put together a guide explaining what it | | | | Side Bus. The Front Side Bus (or FSB) is |
| takes to have a gaming computer. You don't | | | | essentially the highway that runs from the CPU to |
| necessarily need all of these components, so I've | | | | the Ram, the bigger the highway, the more traffic |
| broken them down by level of importance. | | | | it can handle at once, making calculations faster. |
| 3D Video Card | | | | Another thing to watch out for is what kinds of |
| First and foremost, if you have to have a decent | | | | hard drives it supports. If you want SATA or |
| video card to play the latest 3D games. You can | | | | SCSI drives, either your motherboard needs to |
| have the best computer around, but if it has a | | | | support them, or you need to purchase an |
| cheap video card, 3D games will appear to run as | | | | expansion card to plug them into. You'll also want |
| slow as if you had a slow computer. You don't | | | | a motherboard that supports the fastest |
| necessarily need the latest video card, because at | | | | computer memory you can get, which is currently |
| the rate they come out it will be outdated in a | | | | DDR2. |
| few months anyway.. unless of course you have | | | | Hard Drives |
| $500 burning a hole in your pocket and you really | | | | Hard drive speed may not sound important, but it |
| want to. | | | | can be one of many bottle necks that your |
| CPU | | | | computer runs into if it's not up to par with the |
| Since your CPU is the heart of the computer, this | | | | rest of your computer. If you purchase regular |
| one is kind of obvious. Like most things, you don't | | | | IDE hard drives, you'll want at least 7200 rpm |
| need the fastest CPU around, but if you want a | | | | (rpm = rotations per minute, the more rotations |
| real gaming computer, you'll want something at or | | | | the faster the drive). |
| around 3 gigahertz (or 3000+ for you AMD | | | | If you want real speed though, you'll want a Serial |
| enthusiasts). | | | | ATA hard drive (SATA), which is one of the |
| You'll also want something that has a fast front | | | | fastest hard drives you can get without buying |
| side bus. It's usually best to find a motherboard | | | | server grade hard drives (SCSI), which are pretty |
| and cpu that have similar front side bus speeds, | | | | expensive. Your motherboard has to support |
| because they work together, and the overall | | | | SATA or SCSI though if you plan to purchase |
| speed of the front side bus will only be as fast as | | | | these kinds of hard drives, or you have to have a |
| the one with the slowest speed on it. It's kind of | | | | PCI expansion card to plug them into. |
| like driving a sports car on a highway with a 55 | | | | Sound Card |
| mile per hour speed limit, the car might be able to | | | | If you want gaming quality sound, then you |
| go 155, but the highway will only let you go 55. | | | | definitely need to replace that stock or built in |
| Memory | | | | sound card for a decent gaming sound card. And |
| Also known as Ram, it's what applications and | | | | if you want the full effect, go for a dolby 5.1 |
| games use to store information, the more the | | | | surround sound enabled sound card for that super |
| better. It's good to have at least 512 Megabytes, | | | | crisp sound your games can produce. Mix that |
| but real gamers have 750 megabytes, to 1 | | | | with some 5.1 enabled speakers, and your gaming |
| Gigabyte or more. Memory is extremely cheap | | | | experience just took a new turn. |
| these days, it's one of the cheapest and simplest | | | | Computer Cases |
| upgrades you can do. | | | | Ok, so computer cases aren't that important for |
| It's not only the amount that matters though, | | | | speed, but if you want your new gaming |
| they also come in different speeds. DDR2 is the | | | | computer to look slick too, then you need a nice |
| fastest, cheapest memory you can get right now. | | | | colored case. Your friends will be jealous, and you |
| If you have SDRam, you'll probably want to | | | | will finally be able to look at your computer and |
| upgrade your motherboard and CPU so you can | | | | smile, because it looks so awesome. |
| have faster memory. It's kind of drastic, but your | | | | |