 |
|
Building the Ultimate Gaming System IIby Kirk, 2005-03-17 |
||||
|
Audio
How can I ever be picky with Audio? I've been listening to bad MP3 rips on my laptop with headphones. Not exactly home theater material. Sound cards are just like RAM in the sense that a good company means everything. Of course, there is only one standard for a gamer- and that is Soundblaster Audigy 2. Its cheap, it sounds pretty, and its got more hookups than a drug dealer. My Choice:  Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Gamer Why? Its a Soundblaster Audigy 2 with a TON of games. Halo, Rainbow 6, etc. Overall, this is the easiest way for me to get some free games to play with my system. Why buy a super cool system if all I'm going to do is stare at it? Hard Drive Okay, this is going to be a little complex to explain. A lot of you will probably be better sitting down, grabbing an overpowered hard drive, hooking it up to "Master", and that?s it. After all, with the new SATA hookups, that?s not such a bad idea. However, it?s just like how nVidia thought up of SLI- why not have two do better than one? Lets say instead of buying an 500 gig hard drive with 8mb cache, you buy two 250 mb hard drives with 8mb cache. Now, my teacher told me 8+8=16. Get my drift? Two is better than one, that?s kind of the point of sex. Keep in mind, though, that a RAID configuration (That?s setting up for multiple hard drives other than through Master Slave) is kind of a pain in the ass, or so I hear. Plus, you might need a separate card, depending on your Motherboard. Your choice. My Choice:  Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200GB Okay, this isn?t up for "Kirk's greatest choice #1". However, Seagate and Western Digital make a mean hard drive, and this is no exception. The only thing about this that I want to get off my chest is that reports claim that it can get hot. It shouldn?t be a problem if you have good cooling, but this one apparently can get kind of warm. Optical Know how to spot a computer newbie from a mile away? See if they had their techy friend install a dual-layer DVD burner in a shitty computer. One, the computer probably won't process it right and end up screwing up a bunch of discs, and two, its insulting the DVD burner. A good example of my Grandparents computer. For some myriad reason, they pimped out their Dell with a pretty nice DVD burner (Not big-brand, but hell, its a good choice still). Now, what in the hell is my grandfather going to do with a DVD burner? I'll stop rambling and get to my point. What the hell are YOU going to do with a DVD burner? I'm the kind of person who needs optical storage like that. I download, transfer, and watch DVDs so much, I basically warrant putting good money into a DVD burner. However, remember when you're looking for a burner that you honestly probably will never have any use for Dual-Layer DVDs, because they're too damn expensive. Overall, I'd recommend either getting a CD Burner + DVD reader, or a DVD writer with CD burner capabilities. Also, as another note, I've never seen the use of two optical drives, ever. Someone please e-mail me why the hell someone would want to stick two expensive opticals in their computer when one would suffice for cheaper and probably work better. My choice:  Sony DWD22A Double Layer Its your all around DVD burner. Its double layer, but I honestly don't care- all I care about is its got good reviews and a low error rate.
|
|
|||
