Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Building you own gaming PC

So you want to build a gaming PC? Here's how!

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Motherboard / Processor: For pretty much all PCs you want to start by picking out a motherboard. When picking out your motherboard, you must decide what processor you want at the same time by seeing what "LGA Socket" the motherboard is. The LGA must match the processor you pick otherwise the processor will not fit the motherboard. Once you have picked out a motherboard that you like the specs on and the price is ok with you, now we can pick out a graphics card.

Graphics card:  If you are only using one graphics card, then all you need to do is check if your motherboard is PCI-Express 2.0 or 3.0 and match that with the graphics card. The graphics card specs will say which one it is. Find the graphics card you like? add to card like a bau5.

Memory:  For RAM you want a good balance between MHz and CAS latency. Latency = how quick it gets one thing done. High MHz = how much it can do at once without bogging down. So depending on what you are playing, pick a side. 

Power: Now to pick out a PSU. This can be pretty hard because this can either take lots of research to find the power consumption of all of your components or you can estimate from experience. Generally though if you are running one mid range Graphics card like a GTX460 or GTX560, a 600w PSU should be fine. Start going up into the _70's and _80's and you'll need more like a 700w. Maybe a 750w-800w to give yourself some room to upgrade

Cases:  For a case you want to get a case with atleast 3 fans. one side, one back, and on in the front. A mid or full tower will both work. a full tower usually has better cable management and more working room. Also if you have a full ATX motherboard i definitely recommend a full ATX case.

Hard drives: If you want an SSD, make sure your motherboard has good SATA Speeds otherwise its not so much worth it. SSD's are used mainly to install you OS on to keep things running extremely smoothly but a single 1T 7200RPM HDD should be perfectly fine. Personally I have 2 HDD's in a connected configuration called RAID0 which allows them to run as one big combined HDD and it cuts install times in half because it's like one big drive with 2 writers.

Monitors: Size is all your preference. You want the contrast ratio to be as spread apart as possible. for instance a 900,000:1 isnt as good as a 1,000,000:1. The farther they are apart, the blacker blacks will be and the whiter whites will be. Also for gaming you want the lowest Ms latency. 2ms is perfect. 3ms if fine. above that is meh-ish

Additional stuff

SLI/Crossfire: If you want 2 video cards, make sure your Motherboard can handle it. Generally if it has to PCIE slots that are the same color, it can. The two cards MUST be of the same series. i.e. 2 x GTX470 or 2 x GTX680 and so on. Cant pair a 680 with a 580. You need a heap of power too. For my two 560's I have 900w to be safe. If you want to go all out with like 3 cards, just get a 1250w or something insane :P

Overclocking: For this you HAVE to have an aftermarket CPU Cooler. OC'ing is done in the bios of your motherboard by changing the multiplier or bus speed on your CPU and also the voltages. there is too much to explain here but rule of thumb: High voltage = High heat. Speed is limited by voltage. Voltage is limited by heat control. 

Liquid cooling: There are lots of self contained easy to install setups out there that i would go with first before ever trying to make your own. Also too much to talk about here. 

Thats about it :P thanks for looking!





Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Wall Paper

Here's some of the sexy wallpapers you can run with triple screen displays ;)

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And for you double screen guys, you can download a software called "DisplayFusion" to stretch it across 2 screens. Here's some wallpapers that I've used for 2 screen setups.

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My room

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This is my room as I type this message XD I'm a slob. Bowls and cups and bottles EVERYWHERE. Headsets on the floor. Socks everywhere. But who cares! 3 monitors >:O How do you guys live?

Motherboards

The problem with fancy ass motherboards is it requires you to buy fancy ass everything else. Say you just want DDR3 RAM instead of DDR2. Well then you need a whole new motherboard bro. Which can also require a new CPU and video card. But all this faster tech can require more power so NOW you need a new PSU. Sometimes its either all or nothing. Thats how it was for me.

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Now that new graphics cards are out, they are all PCIE 3.0. Thaat really sucks for people like me who built their pc just before PCIE 3.0 motherboards came out. Now when i want one, I'll need a whole new motherboard ontop of a new GPU. That motherboard may also require a different socket CPU. This is what I mean by all or nothing. Upgrading is hard sometimes >:(

nVidia News + The Future

So recently I heard that AMD threatened to sue nVidia on the release of the GTX 680 because they feared it would make them LOOSE TOO MUCH BUSINESS. Now THAT'S a complement. So the GTX680 cards are actually only running at 80% capability. That leaves 20% to overclocking just to get it to what it was designed for! and THEN there is overclocking. This is funny but then again, we are paying $500 for a card that isn't running at its best. It's also funny that at 80% this card still dominates all others on the market. I mean one of these = 2 x 560Ti 2GB as I said in a earlier post. I would know because that's what I'm running. Also nvidia 3d surround on one card? Thats something you normally dont get unless you guy a 590 or something!

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If we've come this far in the past 10 years, Imagine what we'll be using in 20 years. Kind of scary actually if you think about it. we went from a 4GB HDD being normal back in Y2K to 2T being normal. Thats so much more that I'm too lazy to work it out! if that goes up at the same rate, we'll have shit like xenobyte hardrives which could be like 1000 terabytes. My head hurts from thinking about this man. Imagine the resolutions! JIIIIIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. 1920x1200? pffffffft thatll be nothing in 10-20 years.

Monday, March 26, 2012

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I dont even know what to say. THIS, is my dream PC. Add another 560 and liquid cool EVERYTHING. Damn I need a job. But hey i'm getting one soon! Probably a fast food chef but what the hell ever. Anyways who else would kill a person to have this PC. I might :P

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Steel Series Xai

The Steel Series Xai is one of the best gaming mouses out there, mainly for first person shooters. It has two extra buttons on each side which come in handy for things like reloading or knifing someone. It has a screen on the underside of it for quick on the fly setting tweaks. It also has a button right behind the mouse wheel that changes you CPI (sensitivity baiscally) with just one click. The feel isn't very ergonomic but that makes it perfect for FPS games because you don't play them using your wrist and only your wrist to move the mouse, you use your fingers a lot.
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The driver software is extremely customizable to the point where it detects movements you dont even notice yourself. Lots of mouses have a straight line assistance. Whats that may you ask? its when you try and draw a straight line with you mouse either vertically or horizontally. You can change how much assistance you get with the Xai's software. You can make it damn near impossible with no assistance or way too easy. Why is this important? In a first person shooter, you want to have no restriction of movement while aiming and this helps like no other. Definitely check out this mouse!
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Saturday, March 24, 2012

GTX 680s hit the shelves!

Shit just hit the fan! GTX680s are out on the market. That is if they aren't sold out anywhere :P
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With performance like the chart below, one of these 680s challenges 2 560Ti 2GBs which is pretty impressive, though it is exactly double the price of a 560 for one 680, it's half a dozen of one and six of the other really. The framerate is basically identical to two 560s
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If I'm not mistaken though, you can run 3 monitors from one 680 versus 2 of almost any other card in the nVidia line up. The only real advantage to the single 680 is less power consumption so you wont have to up the PSU much to get the performance you want.

My current PC

Hey everyone! thanks for stopping by. I just finished this PC in December of 2011.

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Sexy cable management, I know


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What are you running?


My specs are:
2 x nVidia GTX 560Ti 2GB Graphics cards
ASUS P8P67 PRO REV 3.1 Motherboard
intel core i7 2600k 3.4GHz (OC'd to 4.3GHz)
Antec HCG-900 900w PSU
8GB DDR3 1333MHz 7-7-7-21 timings
1.3TB HDD Space (2 drives in RAID0)
Some MSI DVD burner


Follow for more PC building stuff.
GTX 680's just came out so thats up next.