Time flies, and to some of you, it means that your computer
needs to be upgraded, or it's time you build a new Computer.
I will try my best to cover various aspects of the
computer, from building to case modding and to overclocking (im not
very good at overclocking)
There are many uses of a computer, mainly, Office work, Normal
Household Computers.
So, before building, you need to know the purpose of you
building this new computer.
Office Work
Computers
In an office, computers are meant to run normal programs like
Microsoft Word, publisher, powerpoint etc. These programs usually
does not takes up a lot of system resource. Therefore, a simple
processor, simple motherboard, a Harddisk drive with reasonable
storage space. Onboard graphics will do the job if it is just for
normal use. Windows XP, 1gb will be more than enough
Normal
Household Computers
In this category, it can be divided into a few sub classes.
Mainly, Normal computers, Media centre, and Extreme gaming systems
for you child who will play first person shooter games non stop
even with you nagging at the side for the past 4 hours.
Normal Computers
Lets say for a family of 4 in singapore, and your children is in
primary school, or just started primary school, you don't really
need to own a metal box with very powerful parts. The reason is
that, firstly, your wife or husband is busy with work, and
they do have their own laptop. This is provided that your wife or
husband is not a serious gamer, or just a casual gamer who plays
normal RPGs, or maplestories. And since your children is in primary
school, they onli need to use MS word, powerpoint, simple learning
games.
Thus, you may need a dual core processor, simple motherboards, a
decent graphics card like the 8600 or 8400, to be abit 'future
proof'. Windows XP, 1gb ram, should be enough
Media Centre Computers
Media centre computers, this is something that i believe is
taking over the home entertainment systems you have at home. The
reason being that Media Centre, basically controls the living room
by letting you watch your TV and being able to record them, a ALL
in 1 cd/dvd/blueray disc drive, a multimedia card reader that comes
in handy when you want to show off the videos and picture of you
and your family have taken during your trip to US, to your
relatives.
NOw, the Medias comes in high definition, and therefore, you
need a good processor, and a good graphics card(w HDMI out to your
new 42" full HD 1080p tv, which im sure you are going to show off
to your friends when they come over).
So, you might need a Core 2 duo, a reliable motherboard, and a
good graphics card, say a 4870, or 4850, as they out put sound
through the HDMI out. If you are building a small box PC, you need
to make sure your graphics card can fit into the case, and that you
have sufficient cooling.
Windows XP or vista home(as it comes with media centre), 3-4gb
of ram, TV tuner, sound card
Extreme Gaming Systems For you whole family to play
their graphics intensive games.
I enjoy writing this category the most, as i have a computer
that is in this range. A budget of $3K and above, should get your
computer up to this range. It is important that you buy a computer
that is in this range, if you have children or you wants to be
enjoying the new game you bought from the stall, instead of you
finding out that your system canot support that game.
Everything must be good and durable, if not overkill if you lke
it. A quadcore processor, an extreme series motherboard, 1 or
2 or 3 graphics card running together, a huge power supply, a
large harddisk, good cooling.
Now, you have decided what type of computer you are going to
build, lets look at each of the individual components
specifically.
Power Supply
Power supply supplies your computer with power(obviously...).
What is so important about this is because electricity will kill
your system if not properly configured. A 350 watts power supply is
enough for a normal basic, word processing computer to be up
and running, but this is not enough, for a higher end PC. As though
who build computers may know, high end PC draws a lot of power, in
order for everything to run smoothly, not to mention when you bring
up the voltages while over clocking. I have friends whose computer
have a low wattage powersupply, and because he plug in too much ext
hdd, thumbdrives, and as the power supply tries to cope, the power
given out is not constant, some times more, sometimes less, causing
damage to his motherboard. It is importtant to check how much power
you computer needs to use before purchasing power supplies. u can
do that easily by entering info on this website:
http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/
Motherboards
MOtherboard serves as the heart of the systems, linking
everything together. If you aer just running a simple system, there
is not a need to buy a very high end mobo. ON the otehr hand, if
you are building a computer that is the best in block, you might
want to consider a high end motherboard. High end motherbaords have
more cooling heatsinks/fins that help cool down the northbridge and
southbridge of your chipset, this is importtant as you dun wan ur
system to overheat and crash when you are gaming. Some motherabods
are water cooling ready. If you are into crossfire, i heard
that crossfiring with the x38/x48 or the extreme
chipsets, will produce better framerates than crossfiring with a
non extreme chipset that has PCI express 2.0 x16 slots
PCI express 2.0 X16 slots are what the newer graphics card
are using now, and it is important to know that the graphics card
you are buying now can fit into the slot.
So, if your mobo have 2 or more pci express 2.0 x16 slots, you
can either crossfire or SLI. Crossfire means putting 2 or more ATi
graphics card, and have them running simultaneously, while SLI
means to have 2 or more nvidia grpahics card running at one go.
How to determine whether your mobo is use for SLI or crossfire?
look at the chipset that it is running on. For crossfire, u need an
intel chipset, for sli, u need an nvidia chipset.
Graphics card
Graphic card for normal office computer need not be a very high
end one. Maybe a low end or onboard graphic card will do.
NOrmal home computers, with family members who do some light
gaming, or more intensive gaming, a graphic card that can run the
lastest game will be good. Such cards maybe be the 9800gtx, 9600gt,
8800gtx, if u are on a budget, a 8600 will get u through also.
Media centres PC, i will recommend ATI graphic cards, as they
output sound through the hdmi breakaway cable, and they have the
Universal Video Decoder that will do most or all of your formats
like the dolby dts or other formats. Such cards are the 4850, 4870,
if u are not spending a lot, maybe a 3870 is more than enough if
you are just watching movies and do some gaming.
Extreme gaming computers need a more powerful graphic card, as
the users tend to play demanding games at 30" resolution at veri
high graphic settings. In that case, maybe you should get three GTX
280 on SLI, or 2 4870 x2 on cross fire, be sure to get a fast CPU
in order not to bottleneck your graphic cards
Harddisk drives
Harddisk drives are important for storing documents and movies
and progs.
Office use computers generally do not have a very large
capacity. Maybe a 80gb at most? Reason being that most of the thing
you store are powerpoints, word documents. If you are working in an
office, or company that does graphic design, video editing, 80gb is
not enough, as nowadays, the FULL HD resolution videos takes up
quite an amount of space. maybe a 750-1terabyte storage if you are
doing lots of videos, and u might consider stripping or RAID your
HDD.
NOrmal Home computers without much gaming will be enough will
80gb.
Home with qutie some gaming and media centres wil requires more
space. Nowdays games takes up a lot of gb, eg, the game "race
driver grid" takes up 10gb. if you have a family member that plays
different types of game, you might want to consider 250-500gb.
Reason being that home PC will store more games, more home videos,
more music. Also, get a good quality HDD if you want your data to
be safe.
Gaming rigs will tend to have raptor HDD, as they spin @
10,000rpm instead of the normal HDD that spin @ 7,200rpms. that
means faster loading. I believe all those who build gaming rigs
knows abit of everything, like video editing, music, installing a
lot of games, graphic programs like photoshop, that is why a 500gb
might be the minimum, if you want to go to the extreme, maybe a few
terabyttes if you want to store a lloottt of stuffs
DVD drives
RAMS
Soundcards
3rd party CPU/VGA cooler
- Passive/fan/watercooling
Ageia Physics card
Right now, there is not a need to buy physics card, as they will
soon be integrated on nvidia graphic cards, maybe on ati graphic
cards. Moreover, physics card only help in some games.
Case and Case cooling
Casing is quite an important part when building a new computer,
and is can also be not a very important part.
LEts say u are building a computer for offic work, u dun need a
case that have fanciful lights and tons of fans to cool down the
system. You just need an intake fan, and an exhaust fan to ensure
there is some ventilation. Maybe a cooler master centurion 5
For home use, with a graphic card that gives up quite some heat,
u might need to consider case that both ahve intake fan at the
front, intake at the side, and exhuast at the back.
If you are building an extreme gaming system that can acts as a
radiator in winter times, u might need a case with both intake fans
at the front, at the side, udner the case, exhaust fan at the top
and at the back, and some even ahve fan at the motherboard side.
One good choice will be the antec 900 or the nxzt tempest case, If
you are going full tower, the lian li armoursuit is good, cooler
master cosmos 1000 is also good
Case modding
- Lights/fans
Overclocking Your Systems
i will continue when i am not so tired
