Difference between revisions of "Recommended Hardware"

Revision as of 23:27, 1 June 2008

Seems nearly everyone is thinking of an upgrade right now. To avoid repeating myself and give everyone the benefit of my research over the last month I've created this Hardware chart of what is worth considering to buy.

There are 3 categories of Hardware;

• Budget is the bare minimum you should be considering buying at this moment in time to give smooth performance on the lowest settings.
• Recommended is the best value for money combined with smooth performance on higher settings.
• Performance is for those who want absolutely flawless performance on the highest settings.

Also remember when you are buying your computer to think about the best Price/Performance ratio you can get for your money. Never best to buy the latest hardware just when its released. Look at the model new hardware is replacing or even the model before that that is probably going for clearance prices and still good enough for a basic gaming machine.

Best Buying Tip: Buy often, buy cheap! Remember this and you can't go wrong. No point buying the latest hardware for full price if you only use 50% of its potential in the first year. You might as well buy the bargains when you need them and run them at 100%. Then after 2 years you will have 2 machines instead of 1 and the second machine will probably be better then the expensive one you bought a year before.

Heat, Noise and Energy usage shouldn't be ignored either. Heat can be a real problem to deal with often requiring expensive cooling to fix stability problems. Constant noise from fans and drives will drive you mad. Try to buy quiet fans and drives. Energy is costing more and more and you will be throwing money away going for a high power consuming graphics card that gives fractionally more performance and 1000watt power supply.

Components

Peripherals