PC Buying Guide

[Dashken]

Setting up a new PC is always challenging. What processor should you buy? What motherboard? What about the graphics card? Which should you go for? Who should you trust to give you advice?

If this can be challenging to even seasoned PC hardware enthusiasts, it can be quite impossible for a newbie. So, Empire23 is now working on a large guide on how to select components for your PC. The first part deals with processors, the brains of our PCs.

Link : PC Buying Guide

[Trinity]

Nice article. Looking foward to the next one.

[empire23]

Originally Posted by Trinity

Nice article. Looking foward to the next one.

Thanks

Finished up the first 5 parts a while ago. Adding a sections for graphic cards in a while (can't seem to find my old article, so a rewrite is in order). All in all this guide is meant to be very comprehensive so that people who wanna get the most out of their money can do so.

[Trinity]

Originally Posted by empire23

Thanks

Finished up the first 5 parts a while ago. Adding a sections for graphic cards in a while (can't seem to find my old article, so a rewrite is in order). All in all this guide is meant to be very comprehensive so that people who wanna get the most out of their money can do so.

Kool, Keep up the good work! God only knows (and all of you team members) I need to upgrade...

[The_YongGrand]

Cool review! :thumbs:

You also can put the PC buying guide for HTPCs.

Personally, I can recommend the most budget and bang-for-the-buck rig:

Intel - E2160 (Pentium Dual-Core), 1GB DDR2 667 and a 7600GS

AMD - X2 3800+, 1GB DDR2 667/800 and a 7600GS also.

For simple HTPC, it is recommended to have one of these Sempron 35W edition. However, these stuff are pretty scarce in LYP, and apparently no demand of these at all. A shop in Akihabara (in Japan) do sell those stuff.

[empire23]

Originally Posted by Trinity

Kool, Keep up the good work! God only knows (and all of you team members) I need to upgrade...

Don't worry too much, i'm still running my old 939 X2 with 1gb memory and she's chugging along just nicely despite the abuse i'm hurled at her

[Dashken]

Setting up a new PC is always challenging. What motherboard should you buy? Which should you go for? Who should you trust to give you advice?

If this can be challenging to even seasoned PC hardware enthusiasts, it can be quite impossible for a newbie. So, Empire23 is now working on a large guide on how to select components for your PC. The second part deals with motherboard, the backbones of our PCs.

Quote from the guide:-

"Oh motherboards, the mother of all boards. Yeah, that was pretty cheesy but there is a sibilance of truth to it. Motherboards are the backbones of every PC. They are the platform on which you build your PC. Therefore, it is important that you choose the right motherboard. Without a good foundation, your PC may not work as well as it should."

Link : Motherboard Buying Guide

[Dashken]

We all know RAM is important for your PC. Experts will tell you that there is NEVER enough RAM. But with so many brands and models of memory modules in the market, what should you buy?

Join Empire23 as he goes through the intricacies of the memory module and breaks it down into the key issues you need to know before you pick up a new memory upgrade. If this can be challenging to even seasoned PC hardware enthusiasts, it can be quite impossible for a newbie.

Here's a quote from the article :-

"Frankly, the performance of your memory modules does not really matter unless you are into hardware tweaking and/or overclocking. The performance difference between different memory modules is really insignificant. It is certainly far less important than the quantity of RAM. It's better to have lots of slow RAM than a smaller quantity of faster RAM."

Link : Memory Buying Guide

[Dashken]

The hard drive is one of the most popular upgrades for the PC. Like RAM, you can never have enough hard drive storage space. It always seem to run out before you realize it. Maybe it's all that porn and bootleg anime you have been downloading. So, should you just run out and buy the hard drive with the largest capacity that you can afford? Or is there more to it than just storage space?

Join Empire23 as he goes through the intricacies of the hard drives and breaks it down into the key issues you need to know before you pick up a new hard drive. If this can be challenging to even seasoned PC hardware enthusiasts, it can be quite impossible for a newbie.

Here's a quote from the article :-

"This guide is designed to give you the low-down on hard drives and what makes one better than the other. I will go through the parameters and metrics experts use to decide on the best hard drive for the job. After reading this guide, you will be better armed to select the best hard drive for your needs. Let's begin!"

Link : Hard Drive Buying Guide

[Dashken]

There are just so many misconceptions flying around on how to select the right sound card. This guide is going to emphasize two schools of thought here; gaming, where the frame rate (frames per second or fps), directional accuray and environmental sound effects in a game is paramount, and audiophile, where sound quality and high fidelity comes are the most important factors.

Join Empire23 as he goes through the intricacies of the sound cards and breaks it down into the key issues you need to know before you pick up a new sound card. If this can be challenging to even seasoned PC hardware enthusiasts, it can be quite impossible for a newbie.

Here's a quote from the article :-

"When it comes to audiophile performance, I consider objective tests to be absolutely superior to listening tests. Why? First of all, objective results are final and indisputable. Also, you can't do any listening tests if you don't have the sound cards in front of you! So, objective test results are the best way to compare the performance of audiophile sound cards without first buying them. Okay, let's get this ball rolling..."

Link : Sound Card Buying Guide