How to Apply Thermal Paste to your CPU from Jon Anderson on Vimeo.

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…………< click for slideshow of improved Temps

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If there’s a Heavy who knows what they’re doing then I’m all about supporting him/her as a Medic, but there’s a few things the big guy must know. Accept the fact that you’re going to die when the Uber is over — get out there and cause some confusion, don’t hide in the doorway trying to pick off stragglers. It’s the rest of the team’s job to use this moment to gain ground or set up a stronghold. Secondly, If I’m close to an Uber, don’t run out into the open and get killed, I can’t Uber you if you’re dead. And lastly, if I jump out in front of you, it’s not because I’m excited to see you, it’s because someone’s coming from behind…so turn around and spin that gun.

I love being Engi (oh how I hate that spy). There’s no greater satisfaction than having well placed defense stations for your troops to fall back to when they’re overrun. Or holding a position for an entire game knowing that without my well-placed Sentry/Dispenser combo, our team would have been ploughed over like the St. Louis Rams’ defense this year……ouch. Yep, I could spend all day as Engi and never get sick of it. (did I mention that I really hate spies)

Why is the Demoman so much fun. I think of him as a portable sentry gun. If you’re good, you can effectively defend a door or hallway for an entire game using the right combination of stickies and grenades, and I just can’t explain the happiness I feel after launching 4 grenades down a tunnel and seeing my name start to pop up at the top right corner of the screen. The Demoman is also great when I’m playing on a less experienced team that doesn’t really know how to utilize their engineer and medics.

I only use the Soldier for certain situations. Usually at the end of a CartPush game, when the enemy is making its final push for the last checkpoint, I’ll switch to a Soldier and just start launching rockets frantically at anything moving ~ Hey it works.

And that’s it, those are my four classes. What classes do you like and why?

See you in the game. BTW, I’m “anderson23″

Why do people pirate games I ask you? … Answer: Because there is no penalty, no downside whatsoever. In fact, piracy often brings a bonus…if it means that you won’t have to deal with annoying DRM.

Valve changed this. With their incredibly successful (15 million users) content delivery system, aka. “Steam”, the consequences for pirating a game could mean that you’d never get to play any of your Steam-powered games again. In 2004, Valve indefinitely suspended 20,000 Steam accounts of gamers who tried to pirate Half-Life 2, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg — Valve has been suspending accounts for fraudulent activity since the launch of Steam.

Why does their system work? Because Valve sees the internet as a friend instead of an enemy. You need to be online and logged-in to activate and enjoy Valve’s games, and this let’s them keep track of you…what you’ve purchased, what you’re playing, and what you shouldn’t be playing. This is not a bad thing! They aren’t doing this to steal your secrets or infect your computer with viruses. They want to bring you great games, updates, and patches in a timely and efficient manner. Some would argue that you shouldn’t need an internet connection to play computer games. I disagree. Honestly, if you still don’t have a decent internet connection by now, you’ve got bigger problems than not being able to play games. And besides, Steam will work with dial-up, which you can get for free as long as you don’t mind a few ads. So there really is no excuse.

This solution does have one obstacle however. We gamers are not going to want to install a different content delivery system for each game company that we purchase from. That would be ridiculous. However, I do know of this special organization called the PC Gaming Alliance who ’supposedly’ cares about and is involved in the protection and continued survival of PC gaming. Wouldn’t it be nice for them to come up with a great program that all developer benefit from (hint, hint). Heck, maybe Valve could even help them build it.

So People…Quit whining about PC game piracy. The solution has been sitting in front of us all along.

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Untitled from Jon Anderson on Vimeo.

1. Building a Gaming PC — Part 1: Deciding to Build
2. Building a Gaming PC — Part 2: Selecting the Hardware
3. Building a Gaming PC — Part 3: Building the Rig
4. Building a Gaming PC — Part 4: Starting Up for the First Time
5. Building a Gaming PC — Part 5: Disassembling for upgrades

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Startup from Jon Anderson on Vimeo.

1. Building a Gaming PC — Part 1: Deciding to Build
2. Building a Gaming PC — Part 2: Selecting the Hardware
3. Building a Gaming PC — Part 3: Building the Rig
4. Building a Gaming PC — Part 4: Starting Up for the First Time
5. Building a Gaming PC — Part 5: Disassembling for upgrades

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Tutorial for Building a Gaming PC from Jon Anderson on Vimeo.

1. Building a Gaming PC — Part 1: Deciding to Build
2. Building a Gaming PC — Part 2: Selecting the Hardware
3. Building a Gaming PC — Part 3: Building the Rig
4. Building a Gaming PC — Part 4: Starting Up for the First Time
5. Building a Gaming PC — Part 5: Disassembling for upgrades

1. Case (aka. Tower)
2. Motherboard (aka. the mobo)
3. Power Supply Unit (PSU)
4. Central Processing Unit (CPU)
5. Graphics Processing Unit (GPU or Graphics Card)
6. RAM (we like to call it…RAM) …stands for ‘random access memory’
7. Hard Drive (HDD)
8. DVD-ROM drive (optical drive)
9. Operating System (OS)

You may be wondering: “What about the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers?” Yes of course you’ll need these accessories, but they are not difficult to select or install, so choose them as you see fit.

The CPU

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……….<click images in this post to enlarge.

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The CPU is perhaps the most key component in your system. It is true that in terms of impact on gaming performance the Graphics Card takes 1st place over the CPU, but remember that the performance of the CPU will impact every aspect of your computing, from internet browsing, to audio encoding, to multitasking. The CPU is the first component you should pick. Apart from the motherboard, it is the most prone to compatibility issues, and the motherboard should be chosen to support the CPU, not the other way around. Here are some things to consider when deciding:

1. Dual Core or Quad Core? This will all depend on your budget. Most games are not optimized for quad cores yet so you won’t see a major boost in performance over a dual core CPU. Unless you have a very large budget, my recommendation would be to consider either the Core2Duo E8400, E8500 (both dual) or the Core2Duo Q6600 (quad). These currently have very good price versus performance values (both under $200) and will work excellently for gaming. The E8400/8500 are faster and will have a slight edge in the gaming realm, but the Q6600 could be considered slightly more future-proof due to its extra 2 cores. If you’re an die-hard AMD fan, consider the Athlon64 X2 5000+ or higher, or one of the quad-core Phenom processors. Though their performance doesn’t reach that of Intel’s offerings, they will be fine for playing all of your modern games, and they will save you a few bucks as well.
2. Overclocking? If you plan on overclocking your CPU, it is a good idea to buy an aftermarket heatsink/fan to deal with that extra heat.
3. Is your CPU compatible with your motherboard? See the Motherboard section…

The Motherboard

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This is the trickiest component to select, since it has many functions and is the most prone to compatibility issues. I’ve put together a checklist you should go through when deciding on a motherboard.

1. Will you be buying an Intel or AMD processor? All retail motherboards are clearly identified as being either Intel or AMD, so you shouldn’t have trouble here. Currently, Intel is leading this market in performance, while AMD remains competitive in the lower-end range with their Phenom and Athlon 64 X2 processors.
2. Is your processor (CPU) model supported by the motherboard you’re choosing? You’ve picked out a processor, and now you need a motherboard. Making sure the motherboard and CPU are right for each other is the most important compatibility issue you will face, so pay attention to this step. Two important issues: Socket Type and Front Side Bus (FSB) Speed –make sure the motherboard and CPU agree in these two categories. How can you tell? Well, I’m not going to go through and list every processor that works with every motherboard, so I’ll walk you through how I figure it out. Click through the slideshow for a demonstration (Click on right side of picture to advance in slideshow).



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3. How many graphics cards do you plan to use? You can use more than one graphics card. Nvidia uses ‘SLI’, and AMD uses ‘Crossfire’. You’ll need a motherboard with the right number of PCI-e slots for your setup.
4. Do you want integrated audio or will you be purchasing a sound card? Most motherboards come with excellent integrated audio. Look for High Definition, 5.1or 7.1 surround sound.
5. Do you want integrated graphics or will you be buying a graphics card? If you’re planning on doing any gaming make sure you get a motherboard without integrated graphics. It is a waste of money.
6. Do you plan on overclocking your CPU/GPU? If so, you’ll want a motherboard with a good overclocking reputation. This usually means adequate cooling (aka. good heatsinks)
7. Are there enough USB, Firewire, digital audio, SATA, IDE, PCI, and PCI-Express (PCI-e) connections?

• Look for a motherboard with at least 4 usb ports on the motherboard and 2 more going to the case.
• For Firewire, one connection is enough, although it’s not necessary if you don’t have a specific need for it.
• Onboard digital audio should have a SPDIF connection for a digital coaxial cable and optionally an optical connection as well.
• SATA and IDE are commonly used for your hard drive and dvd-rom drive. SATA is better so look for a dvd-rom and hard drive with SATA connections. Pick a motherboard with at least 4 SATA slots.
• PCI is used for connecting many different accessories such as a wireless network card, modem card, tv tuner card, etc. — 3 or 4 of these slots should be fine.

The Case

Rule #1: Your case has to look good……real good. This is what you’re going to be looking at with pride and joy for the next few years, so make sure you absolutely love the way it looks. Second of all, you need to get the right type of case. Make sure you get an ATX form factor case. This just means that your case will be compliant with ATX-type motherboards and power supplies. If you are trying to build a very small PC for some reason (like for a home theater PC) you might want to get a microATX case, but otherwise stick with ATX. You’ll also need to decide what size case you want. Mid-Tower and Full-Tower cases both come in ATX form factors, and for most of you, Mid-Tower is the way to go since Full size cases are very large and generally for extreme enthusiasts. Mid-Tower cases are more along the lines of what you would see in retail stores, though they can be significantly larger so make sure you look at the dimensions before you buy. Lastly, make sure to look into the option of purchasing a case/power-supply combo, which is very common and can save you some cash.

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The Power Supply

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Don’t try to cut costs here. A good quality PSU is very important and can save you some major headaches later on. It’s relatively simple to pick one out.

• First of all, make sure it is an ATX power supply so that it will work with your motherboard and case.
• Secondly, make sure you have enough power for your components. For most new builds, as long as you’re only using 1 graphics card, you should be fine with a 400-550 Watt power supply. (If you have a powerful dual-slot graphics card you’ll want to stick to the higher end ~550W.) If you plan to use more than one GPU, you’ll need to look at the power requirements and size the PSU accordingly. Efficiency is also a important. Look for a power supply with an efficiency rating of at least 80%.
• Lastly, you’ll have to choose between a normal or modular type PSU. Normal power supplies have built-in cables which means that you’ll probably have some extra, non-used cables taking up space in your case. With a modular PSU, you only plug in the cables that you need, and this will make cable managment a little easier. Some say that you might lose a little efficiency with the modular type, but in my opinion, the difference is too small to be a factor.

The Graphics Card

And now the moment you’ve been waiting for — the GPU. Modern graphics cards have grown to be extremely powerful and expensive. If you’re a gamer, expect your graphics card to be your most costly purchase…by alot. Compatibility isn’t that much of a problem — just make sure your card uses the PCI-e interface and is supported by the operating system you are using (XP, Vista, etc.). ATI (which is now part of AMD) and Nvidia are both very competitive in the GPU market. Currently, both companies have the edge in different pricepoints. Each month, Tom’s Hardware publishes a list of the Best Graphics Cards for Your Money (September ‘08 is here) spanning a wide range of budgets, so I would be reinventing the wheel if I posted the same thing here. It should help you be able to choose the GPU that’s right for you. (As a side note…I have no loyalty or affiliation with Tom’s Hardware. It just so happens that they have a great resource here that I have found very useful in the past.)

The RAM

Do not buy RAM from a “brick and mortar” retail outlet. Buy online. You’ll save alot of money and have access to better quality RAM. Good brands include (but are not limited to) Corsair, Patriot, Gskill (what I own), and Crucial. There are two main options for your typical build: DDR2 and DDR3. DDR3 is quite expensive and is mainly used by hardcore overclockers so my recommendation is to stick with DDR2 (don’t worry, it will not be a bottleneck). You’ll need 2 sticks of 240-pin, SDRAM (DDR2 falls under this category), and try to get either 2 Gigabytes (2 x 1GB) or 4 Gigabytes (2 x 2GB). Honestly, you probably won’t see a huge performance increase from 2 to 4 Gigabytes so your budget will have to determine how much you want. Lastly, it is very important to check the clock frequency of the memory you’re going to buy. Currently, my recommendation is DDR2 800 (PC 6400). It is relatively inexpensive (~$50 for 2 GB) and getting RAM faster than this won’t noticeably increase performance. If anything, buy more RAM rather than faster RAM.

The Hard Drive

The size of the hard drive is up to you. To give you an idea of what you should be paying, a good 500 Gig internal hard drive can be found for about $70. Buying a hard drive that’s labeled ‘OEM’ is a great way to save money. This just means that the hard drive was made for new system builders (like yourself), so it won’t have any of the fancy packaging. There are two different connection types for hard drives: IDE and SATA. My recommendation is to go with SATA as it is easier to manage the cable and is newer/faster. Lastly, make sure that the speed of your HD is at least 7200 RPM. You can go for 10,000 RPM if you want, but again, you’ll be paying alot more for only a slight boost in performance.

The DVD-ROM Player

Here again is another fairly inexpensive component. A good DVD±R DVD Burner should only cost around $25. Here are the speeds you should look for: 20x DVD+R, 8X DVD+RW, 48X CD-R. (If you can find optical drives with faster speeds great, but don’t buy anything slower.) As with the Hard Drive, you can either use IDE or SATA to connect the DVD-ROM player to the motherboard, and once again my recommendation goes to SATA.

The Operating System

If you plan on gaming, you definately need to get Windows Vista……OK let me just take a break for a minute to rant. When Vista came out it was buggy and annoying: programs were not compatible, popups to “allow” your programs to run appeared every 2 seconds, etc. So people decided that Vista was no good and stuck with XP. I however did not. I continued to use Vista and after a few months of updates and patches, Vista and I had become quite good friends. Of course by this time rumors had spread that Vista was a load of crap and now even people who had never even used it would rather die than ‘upgrade to Vista’. Here’s my message to you: “Stop acting like you’re 90 years old and open you mind to change and progress.” Remember when browser tabs came out and we thought it was annoying and weird…imagine living without tabs today. Change is good, and progress will never come without troubleshooting the bugs (of course, this should have been done by Microsoft, but that’s in the past)……OK, I’m finished ranting. Anyways, Vista provides support for DirectX10, looks amazing, and has many useful features that after a few weeks of useage you won’t be able to live without. Make sure you get the ‘OEM’ version as it will be much cheaper ~$100.

1. Building a Gaming PC — Part 1: Deciding to Build
2. Building a Gaming PC — Part 2: Selecting the Hardware
3. Building a Gaming PC — Part 3: Building the Rig
4. Building a Gaming PC — Part 4: Starting Up for the First Time
5. Building a Gaming PC — Part 5: Disassembling for upgrades

People generally have three fears when it comes to building a PC:

1. Will my hardware components be compatible?
2. Am I putting this together the right way?
3. Am I really getting the best Performance for the Price?

This guide will put those fears to rest. But before we continue reading, let’s make sure that building is right for you. Honestly, building ISN’T for everyone, and you DON’T need a custom rig to be able to play today’s most demanding games.  If you aren’t that interested in building, you just don’t have time to put into the process, or you get confused setting up a folding chair, then my recommendation for you is to go out, buy a ~$500 PC with a good processor in it, upgrade the graphics card, and be done with it.

However, if you ARE interested in reaching the limit of the Price/Performance threshold, if you ARE interested in owning a fully customizable and future-proof machine, if you ARE interested in telling people that YOU built your own computer, then this ‘Guide to Building a Gaming PC’ is exactly where you should begin.

This guide will consist of 5 parts, the last 3 of which will contain video tutorials:

1. Building a Gaming PC — Part 1: Deciding to Build
2. Building a Gaming PC — Part 2: Selecting the Hardware
3. Building a Gaming PC — Part 3: Building the Rig
4. Building a Gaming PC — Part 4: Starting Up for the First Time
5. Building a Gaming PC — Part 5: Disassembling for upgrades

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