Halo 1 & 2 for PC
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Subject: The Guide to Designing Awesome Computers
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This guide walks you through the steps of picking the components for your next computer. My goal in this guide is to teach you what to look for so you can shop wisely and understand what you are getting. If I accidentally get too technical or I am using terms you can't understand please feel free to ask what I'm talking about.

First off, you need to decide what you are looking for in the computer and your budget. I have three groups that you should help you in your decision

BUDGET: These computers are for work and school only. Use these for word email internet and similar things. Price range from $400-$800

MIDRANGE: These are for a mix of work and play. These play games with decent quality while not having a whoa mama price tag. Price range $800-$1200

HIGH END: These are mainly for games and will be great for graphic design and game design. These you can do almost any thing and if you’re a good enough shopper you can get it for $1200 dollars. Price Range $1200-$2500. Any more you might be getting scammed.

Now I'll do my best to describe every part in enough detail that you understand what you are getting and you can make the best decisions for your parts

THE NAMES AND JOBS OF ALL THE PARTS

You need to first decide what brand of processor you want, AMD or Intel. These two are the most popular and easiest to find.

Intel is better for work and school, so they are best for Budget and Midrange computers. Intel Has faster clock speeds. This means they have more hertz (Hz) (a unit of frequency of electrical vibrations equal to one cycle per second). A hertz is a metric unit; so there is also kilohertz (kHz) megahertz (MHz) gigahertz (GHz) and terahertz (THz). These are all arranged in slowest to fastest. You most commonly see MHz and GHz, and so far nothing runs at THz.

AMD is better for multitasking and games. AMD has 64bit processors compared to Intel's 32bit processors. Basically, imagine the traffic in New York City say the 32 bit is a 4 lane highway compared to the 64 bit 8 lane highway. The 64 bit can send more info at once.

Next AMD has larger L2 cache.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/c/cache.html
This should explain what cache is
L1 stands for level 1
L2 stands for level 2
And so on

The next thing you need to know is about hyper threading and hyper transport

Hyper-Threading: A technology developed by Intel that enables multithreaded software applications to execute threads in parallel on a single multi-core processor instead of processing threads in a linear fashion.

Hyper Transport technology, developed by AMD is a high-speed, low-latency, point-to-point link designed to increase the communication speed between integrated circuits in computers, servers, embedded systems, and networking and telecommunications equipment up to 48 times faster than some existing technologies.

If you get a processor with one of the two things above, you will need to make sure that the motherboard is compatible with the technology

Then you need to know about the FSB (front side bus). FSB is a very small sub-processor inside the main processor that sends data in-between the processor and the main system memory.

Finally for the processor you need to know about the socket types. Basically just make sure that

MOTHERBOARD: The cornerstone of the computer. Every thing is built off of this. Start with the processor slot. Slots are pretty standard now. First decide which company you are going to use. For Intel you need a 478 pin slot. And 939 pin for AMD. For budget computers go with integrated video cards because they cost about ten dollars and run office and school programs great. Midrange and high end computers make sure you have a PCI-E (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) High end computers also need to consider SLI (scalable link interface). I’ll expand on this in the video card section. If you want SLI then make sure you have a NVIDIA nForce4 SLI North Bridge chipset. The motherboard contains two chips; North Bridge South Bridge In Northbridge/Southbridge Chipset architecture designs, the Northbridge is the chip or chips that connect a CPU to memory, the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus, Level 2 cache and AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) activities. The Northbridge chips communicate with the CPU the FSB.
The Northbridge chip is one of two chips that control the functions of the chipset (A number of integrated circuits designed to perform one or more related functions). The other is the Southbridge. The Northbridge can consist of more than one discrete chip while the Southbridge is typically only one discrete chip.

Then consider the memory slots. Try to get 4 of DDR-SDRAM (Double Data Rate-Synchronous DRAM (dynamic random access memory)) or DDR2-SDRAM (more commonly DDR and DDR2) slots. They are the newest and fastest.

Next, see if it has built in LAN (local-area network) because now a lot of people are switching to high speed internet and you would need the LAN. It would through your cable/DSL (digital subscriber lines) modem or your T1 modem to expand to the WAN (wide area network) for connection to all websites.

Next check to see if it has integrated audio it is great for budget computers but for mid-range and high end try to not get an elaborate onboard audio because it uses the main processor to run it which slows down your computer in games.

Lastly you need to consider the amount of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slots. I say at least 4 for network cards, sound cards, the soon to come out physics processing unit and any extra for what ever you might need.

MEMORY: This is where the processor stores info until it can process it. The standard amount of pins (the metal pieces where the memory is connected to the motherboard) for desktop computers is 184 so you don’t have to worry about that. The next is you want to check the specs on the motherboard to see the speed of memory you need. This looks either like DDR 400 or PC 3200 and the memory should tell you straight. I suggest for budget computers 512 MB to 1 GB. Midrange 1 GB to 2 Gb and High End 2GB to 4GB. Don’t worry about buying the high end performance memory because there isn’t much difference. The only reason you would want to buy those is because they come with heat sinks which make them better for over clocking. Trusted brands are Corsair, Crucial and Kingston.

DVD/CD: These are pretty straight forward. The (Insert number here)x stands for is how many times faster it Reads and writes compared to the speed of the first drive able to do that format. So the higher the number the faster the drive.
The cache is where the drive stores information till the cache is full so the larger the chache the fewer times you have to wait for the disk to get up to speed.

SOUND CARD: The chipset is the heart of a sound card. The fastest and probably most popular is the X-Fi by creative. The amount of sound channels is also important. The highest amount is called 7.1 the seven for speakers and .1 for subwoofer. Next the sample rate is is who fast the card reads files and the bit rate is the quality it can play that file.

VIDEO CARD: check this forum for info on this "The Buyer's Guide to Graphics Cards".
This is a great guide

COOLING: The cooling is one of the more important parts of the pc. If you don't get adequate cooling the computer will either run slow, crash a lot or get fried and never work again. You need a fan for your CPU; one comes on your video card check to see if your case comes with some. Try to get the 120mm fans because they work better and are quieter. See if you can get a fan for your hard drive.

There is also water cooling with this you would need a kit which usually comes with a pump a reservoir and a CPU block. If you want to go really quiet and efficient get a GPU block and whatever you can get for your hard drive. You still need case fans for the rest of the parts. But it should be a lot steadier temperatures which the processor loves.

CASE: After you chose your motherboard check it to see how many card slots it has and find a case with enough holes in the back. Also the motherboard has a size type ATX/ BTX check to see if the case supports it. After that just find something that looks cool and has at least two hard drive slots and two optical drive slots. Rip out the power supply unless it is made by Antec or Thermatake. Most are not reliable.

Make sure it has at least two fan slots for intake and outtake

POWER SUPPLY:
Budget and Midrange: 450 watt to 600 watt
High End: 600 watt to 1 kilowatt
just make sure it is SLI certified if you are building a SLI system

HARD DRIVES: go with 80GB to 400GB unless you are building a media center or a system with TIVO. Then go with 400GB or 500GB. Trusted brands are Maxtor, Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung, and Western Digital

I am finally done typing and only 865 characters left till maxed out

[Edited on 3/8/2006]

  • 12.29.2005 1:21 AM PDT
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Posted by: Anton P Nym
who says you have to be an ace to have fun?

Posted by: TUI_Obi_Wan
Stupid parents let their stupid children play games that are rated M when they should be playing Big Birds Spelling Adventures

Posted by: Kira Onime
Also the AR is actually good in CQB now and no longer a glorified baseball bat.

The categories are pretty crappy.
Without the OS I bought my PC that I built was around $800 total.
It will run anything I throw at it too.

  • 12.29.2005 4:13 PM PDT
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Does it run on the highest resolution and all the quality settings on high


if it doesn't you have a midrange which is designed to run all games on medium- medium high settings

and the prices include OS

[Edited on 12/29/2005]

  • 12.29.2005 4:25 PM PDT
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Posted by: Anton P Nym
who says you have to be an ace to have fun?

Posted by: TUI_Obi_Wan
Stupid parents let their stupid children play games that are rated M when they should be playing Big Birds Spelling Adventures

Posted by: Kira Onime
Also the AR is actually good in CQB now and no longer a glorified baseball bat.

I haven't tried it on anything but Halo on the highest of everything, but on Halo it does.

  • 12.29.2005 5:04 PM PDT
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I designed a commputer that could kill any normal persons computer and it was $1200 with the OS and Microsoft office small business

  • 12.29.2005 5:44 PM PDT
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Hm...I like the beginning of your guide, very informative as far as processors go, everything else you touch on seems to be a bit shaky as far as explanations. Also, although I liked the details you gave about the processors, you seem to have left out pretty much everything else that makes a computer beep...especially the Graphics Card, which is vital to ANY gamer, info about Hard Drives, the Mobo (you sort of left it hanging), the OS, etc, etc.

  • 12.29.2005 5:57 PM PDT
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I haven't finishexd typing yet I'll say in big bold leters that it's done when It's done
It's a lot of Typing

  • 12.29.2005 6:42 PM PDT
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I posted some stuff from my old guide until I finished typing

  • 12.29.2005 9:37 PM PDT
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It won't take as long to update it after it's finished because you just got to add thing and change them when they grow outdated

  • 12.29.2005 10:42 PM PDT
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Hm...I would fix up a bit of the grammar and spelling in the post. Make it a bit more coherent. Just copy and paste into a Word document, and let Word do the dirty work for you. Add on a bit more, you mentioned SLD's Buyer's Guide To Graphics Cards, might want to link that thread and provide a few more links where necessary.

Once it's done, I suggest PMing one of the mods (Yoozel=highly recommended moderator) to see if they'll sticky your stuff. But you still need to work on it a bit more before going to that step. Also, double check some of your info, or stuff that you simply aren't sure about.

The thing is, you've got quite a few guides to compete with, all found at the sticky at the top of the forum. So make it better, please.

[Edited on 12/30/2005]

  • 12.30.2005 9:24 AM PDT
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Posted by: Anton P Nym
who says you have to be an ace to have fun?

Posted by: TUI_Obi_Wan
Stupid parents let their stupid children play games that are rated M when they should be playing Big Birds Spelling Adventures

Posted by: Kira Onime
Also the AR is actually good in CQB now and no longer a glorified baseball bat.

First, you didn't type out the graphics guide 2. You copied and pasted SLD's post.
Second, here is a guide for buying graphics cards that might be useful.

  • 12.30.2005 2:33 PM PDT
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you guys apperantly don't look at my former posts

I did copy and paste the buyers guide to graphics cards because I thought it was great and you can't post on it anymore

  • 12.30.2005 4:44 PM PDT
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what the heck hapened to my other forum

I've been busy so I was going to update it when I was finished typing this one

so if any of the bungie staff see this or if the people who maintain the forums unlock the forum

I'll update it the second it is

[Edited on 12/30/2005]

  • 12.30.2005 4:50 PM PDT
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Posted by: Anton P Nym
who says you have to be an ace to have fun?

Posted by: TUI_Obi_Wan
Stupid parents let their stupid children play games that are rated M when they should be playing Big Birds Spelling Adventures

Posted by: Kira Onime
Also the AR is actually good in CQB now and no longer a glorified baseball bat.

They locked it because it was pointless spam.
You didn't need to post it because we can all read the stickies fine.
EDIT: no offense to SLD, but his guide hasn't been updated since September, and it doesn't reccomend specific cards.

[Edited on 12/30/2005]

  • 12.30.2005 5:28 PM PDT
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Okay, well Skaidul, I understand why you reposted SLD's thread--you wanted people to be allowed to comment on what he said, now that the sticky version has been blocked to further commenting. Still, most people really don't need to comment on that thread and can make their own if there is ever a necessary time. And you could always ask mods to unblock the thread for you if you provided them with good reason.

Also, pretty good guide, might want to touch it up a bit as was previously said but overall good job : )

Hey to anyone here, I have always wondered about the technical names about these things: Am I correct in thinking that the money-costing, hard-work-doing piece of machinery that you buy is a graphics card, and that the downloadable, making-a-slight-difference-in-gameplay part is called a video driver? I believe that's how it works, but I've heard a lot of ambiguity in the names like calling what I think of as a gfx card a video card and so on.

  • 12.30.2005 5:56 PM PDT
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If you ever ran a computer with a good graphics card without the driver you would see in even just scroling down a page the speed of horible

what the driver does is harness the graphic power and put it to use

the reason new drivers come out is they inserted things in the command line that worked but later they discovered that somthing else worked better

  • 12.30.2005 7:30 PM PDT
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Hey to anyone here, I have always wondered about the technical names about these things: Am I correct in thinking that the money-costing, hard-work-doing piece of machinery that you buy is a graphics card, and that the downloadable, making-a-slight-difference-in-gameplay part is called a video driver?
Depends. If you buy nVidia; you paid for a card; if you buy ATI, you just bought yerself a mess of driver updates.

JK; drivers are software on the card. The reason new drivers come out is because card makers do not run every program under the sun before they release a card. Often times, a program that should run stabily on a card with its factory set drivers, doesn't. Easier solution next to shutting down the factory line and rewriting the software installed on each card? Internet and let people DL updated drivers as problems arise for certain programs. Also, as new programs are written and distributed, they may not take advantage of one chipset and its drivers, so card manufacturers are called on again to remedy the issue. This is why you can run a month old game on a year old video card; up to date drivers.

Though a quick refference to the difference between ATI and nVidia chipsets will help this post.

This guide shows promise. I do, however, have to disagree with the pricing versus viability to gaming. While the upper end systems will cost in the 1200$ range to build, a 400$ system, including processor, can run just about any game on the market right now and run it well. Thats a P4/AMD from a barebones kit with aftermarket video card and extra RAM included in the price (being thrifty and shopping around). OS not included. These figures were accurate, but market prices on single core Intels have dropped recently, and PC build prices with them. The key selling point for home built systems is not in the initial cost though; its in upgrades. Building a system from the board up lets you customize with more flexibility later. By building a PC now (and an upper end PC to boot) you have more options in a few years when your store bought friends are starting to lag. Also, home build parts, when carefully considered, are of much higher quality than the Dell or Gateway you buy that claims simular performance. While my friends 3.2HT Intel is faster than my 3.0 Ht, because my Motherboard is more able to bear the load, i can dust him on processing times...because my system can actually run with the same speed as my processor. All parts can keep up with each other in stead of one great processor being shoved into a box with a bargain basement board, surplus video card and 2 year old RAM.

I'm more in control ;) So while a 400$ barebones system can run just about anything out there today, spending a little more money on your PC to build it well means more time between upgrades, less things to upgrade, and--in short(for me)--money saved in the long run.

AMD is WORSE for multitasking (running multiple programs at one time) when compared to dual core processors(which are actually capable of RUNNING multiple processes at one time), but considerably better for gaming(which is running one very big program and its subprocesses). AMD's pipelines use much better archetecture too, allowing data transfer to move faster with less data lost per transfer. But, for all the names they put in front of it, an AMD Athalon is still just a single core processor, running one process per tic. Your analogy is backwards. Intel is the 8 lane highway; AMD is the 4 lane. But while Intel has more road to work with, AMD is an interstate 4 lane, meaning everything is moving faster...until it bottlenecks. In the end, unless you're maxing out the processor, we're talking potAtoes and potAHtoes.

Also; memory is cheap; i reccomend getting as much as you can afford; and go SATA drives, as IDE is on its way out. RAM; go for DDR; and grab a gig minimum these days. DDR2 is a lot more money for not much more speed. Again, its cheap (DDR is anyway) and the fastest upgrade for any computer to see an immediate performance improvment. And remind people to make sure the Mboard they buy supports DDR/DDR2 RAM, not just old SDRAM, as you did for PCI-E versus AGP (which should be moved or added to the video card section as well)

Speaking of out=478 Intel Sockets. Within the year. Gone. As Intel migrates to 64 bit tech, the pins are going up too. Off the top of my head, its 775 Socket for Intel 64 bit creeping its way back into direct competition with the AMD Athalon 64 bit core. Someone plz check this for accuracy.

Also, you (shall we say) gloss over Operating Systems. huge factor in game performance. While Windows XPHome can run games, Windows XP Pro is about 5 times more stable and can actually be set to use FEWER resources than its Home counterpart. i hear XP media is equally as stable(at least for gaming), but have had no occasion to test that yet. Do a little research on OS and find the best for the mid-line to uber builds; all XPs are cheap atm with Vista on the way, so an upgrade to XP Pro might be a good idea for gamers. Personnally, Vista smells like Windows ME to me; i'm going to steer clear for a good while.

Last: Bold Italics Underline and Quote both to punch up imporant words/information and preserve credibility.
Don't PM a mod and ask that this thread be sticked though. Use this thread to fine tune your guide (since its already here) and then repost, asking a mod to lock the original draft and sticky your finished piece. they shouldn't mind the double post in this case; its for a good cause.


[Edited on 12/30/2005]

  • 12.30.2005 8:06 PM PDT
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Thanks for the update

Just to let every one know I have a subscription to maximum pc so I have a steady flow of info to keep this updated

  • 12.30.2005 9:43 PM PDT
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those $400 computers you saw are barebone systems that come only with a case, power supply, moutherboard, and processor. no video card or any thing else so you wouldn't be able to intall the games on the computer and if you put a cd drive on it you wouldn't have a place to install it

  • 12.31.2005 8:31 AM PDT
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and are bold italics underline is it like the html format

never mind

[Edited on 12/31/2005]

  • 12.31.2005 8:33 AM PDT
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and you say linux forever

I'm currently downloading alinux to see how i like it

  • 12.31.2005 8:37 AM PDT
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Posted by: Anton P Nym
who says you have to be an ace to have fun?

Posted by: TUI_Obi_Wan
Stupid parents let their stupid children play games that are rated M when they should be playing Big Birds Spelling Adventures

Posted by: Kira Onime
Also the AR is actually good in CQB now and no longer a glorified baseball bat.

Please don't quadruple post. It's againt the rule.(anything above single post)
Also, he said if you shopped around then you could get a graphics card and barebones system for about $400.
Also, you might want to mention that SATA hard drives don't work with OEM versions of Windows. I found out the hard way.

  • 12.31.2005 10:12 AM PDT
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Matt, is that you? It's me, Randy!

  • 12.31.2005 10:42 AM PDT
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Posted by: Minus Sign
Don't PM a mod and ask that this thread be sticked though. Use this thread to fine tune your guide (since its already here) and then repost, asking a mod to lock the original draft and sticky your finished piece. they shouldn't mind the double post in this case; its for a good cause.


Hm...actually, seeing the threads, I do agree with Minus here. Follow his instructions and you might just get a link as a guide thread.

One other thing. You have been posting one-too-many times in a row. Below every post you make is a button marked "Edit." It'll allow you to edit your thread to include updates, to correct information, etc. etc. I'd much rather read a fairly long post with all your edits instead of reading three posts in a row by the same author.

  • 12.31.2005 12:09 PM PDT

* Pr: ĭnʹtərnĕts: "I hear there's rumors on the uh (pause), Internets...

O RLY?

Nevermind that, anyways, I bought Windows XP Pro. OEM, and installed it fine on my WD Caviar SATA Hard Drive.

Works fine.


Posted by: Aj6627
Also, you might want to mention that SATA hard drives don't work with OEM versions of Windows.

  • 12.31.2005 1:24 PM PDT

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