Date:
Friday , November 07, 2003
Category:
Stuff / Miscellaneous
Manufacturers:
Various
Author:
Morry Teitelman
Editor:
Kyle Bennett

System Building Guide 0403

We help you build a solid gaming and overclocking rig that will leave the alien-headed voodoo boys circled by the buzzards.

Introduction

With the holiday season upon us, many of you will be building new boxes, modding new boxes, upgrading old ones, and asking Santa or Momma Clause for that extra something special. What we want to do here is give you our recommendations for putting together a killer gaming and overclocking rig, while not spending your entire life savings and having to go into indentured servitude to pay it off. Being very budget minded persons ourselves, we try our best to purchase hardware that will give us the most bang for our buck. Not necessarily the top of the line hardware, but the parts that will perform well by default and then has enough overclocking "umph" to take on or surpass the flagship product. This approach is inherently risky, due to the fact that we tend to push hardware rather hard, but that is where the fun really starts. With careful research and lots of patience, you can easily minimize the risk and embark on an OCing career if you have not before or certainly extend a current one.

Article Image

Keeping in line with the above statements, this guide outlines an approach to building a top notch system, for much less than a top notch price. There are no shortcuts taken to cut system costs, but there is an inherent hardware risk involved. We will go through component by component building a system, with sufficient support given for the choices made, as well as alternatives available if the selections do not necessarily fit your taste. I will outline the system as follows: CPU, CPU cooler, motherboard, memory, video card, DVD-ROM, CD-RW drive, hard drives, case, monitor.

But what about the big question? Intel or AMD? We decided to play both sides to minimize the flame mail. The CPU, CPU cooler, and motherboard sections will be broken down into AMD and Intel recommended setups.

Our article links are sponsored by NewEgg. Do be advised that the article was written before the sponsorship was offered to four select retailers. NewEgg stepped up so you will be able to click directly through to NewEgg to price check and order our system components listed.

Let’s get started.