Building a Gaming Machine

If you are contemplating building your own custom Gaming machine here are some things to consider beyond the Motherboard, CPU, Ram, Graphics and Audio.

You are going to build an expensive high end PC because that is what games require. The components that you are going to use are among the most power hungry devices ever made for a PC and they are also going to produce alot of heat. This is where many first time builders run into problems. :4-dontkno

The Case
A well designed case is a must when building a gaming machine. Cool air must be pumped into the case and hot air must be pumped out. The case should have at least 1 fan at the lower front of the case and one fan on the side of the case near the Graphics card pumping cool air into the case. Additionally the case should have atleast 1 fan in the back and one at the top of the case pumping hot air out.

Unless you are going to buy a very high end case do not buy one with a power supply. :4-thatsba Here's why.

The Power Supply
Is the power supply the heart of your system? You bet it is, it runs everything in the PC and yet it is one of the most overlooked components. We already know that the components in out PC are power hungry but they are also very finicky about the quality of the power supplied to them.

The power supply voltages must be very steady to avoid stability issues. If your power supply is weak it may run your PC ok when it is doing nothing but when you fire up that game it may not be able to keep up with demand causing the voltages to drop. This is when your PC locks up and its game over, tilt whatever.

Don't skimp on the power supply, it is better to have too much power than not enough. A good quality power supply in the 450 to 550 watt range is a must for a high end system. Get one from a well known manufacturer like Enermax, Antec or OCZ.

CPU Cooling
The typical boxed processor comes with a heatsink/fan and usually a thermal pad that goes between the heatsink and CPU. You might think that if Intel put this stuff in the box then it must be good right!

Not really, In my opinion it is just about the bare minimum that one can get away with without turning the CPU into a smoldering mass of junk. If you are going to spend all that cash on a high end system a few more bucks for a good heatsink/fan and some good quality thermal paste is a good investment.

If you are not a mad overclocker planning to cool your system with water or sub zero refrigeration to get the system to run at ludicrous speed then air cooling is the way to go.

I recommend a good CPU heatsink like a Thermalright XP-90 and a 92mm CPU fan. This is what I use on my own system because it adds stability and life to my CPU. Use a good quality thermal paste like Arctic Silver 5 and always follow the paste manufacturers instructions carefully when applying it.

I hope I have convinced you to look beyond the usual stuff like Motherboards and CPUs. It is just as important to create the proper environment to cool and power your new system as it is to pick the components your going to brag about.

Happy Gaming! :grin: