How to Build a High End Gaming Machine Using State of the Art Specifications

Read this note before you continue reading this article. This article is aimed at building a state of the art gaming PC with high end specifications. In reality, it would be hard to determine which specifications would be the best as opinions are generally based on one's personal experience and technological know-how. Be sure that you have lots of cash when building an ultimate gaming machine as these state of the art machines are expensive!

The gaming industry is a multi-billion dollars industry. Educational institutions are recognizing this industry and are promoting it as a professional career option. Getting the best graphics and sound from a game has always been a hardcore gamer's priority. With demanding games such as World of Warcraft, Lineage, F.E.A.R, Prey, and many more upcoming graphically intense games being released into the market, having a high end gaming machine helps in increasing one's gaming experience.

Processor
To begin with, a high end processor is always a pre-requisite for an ultimate gaming machine. Preferably get Intel's Core 2 Duo processor or AMD's Anthlon 64 X2 dual core processor. These dual core processors can pack a punch in meeting your game's processing needs. A processor with dual core can increase the processing capability up to two times of a normal processor. Preferably if you intend to get Intel's Core 2 Duo, get a processor with at least 2.13 GHz and as for Anthlon 64 X2 at least 2.8GHz.

Cooling
As always equip your computer with the best heat sink and fan - high end gaming tends to generate huge amount of heat! Following the gaming trend, liquid cooling is once again introduced as a preferable cooling system. Liquid cooling was considered as a joke in the past because of leaky pipes which short-circuited systems. However, a liquid cooling system is much quieter and your processor is cooler compared to conventional cooling by fan. I would recommend that you use Alienware's ALX Active Liquid Cooling System. However, if you manage to land you hands on air-conditioned cooling, by all means get that system! A cooler processor is more efficient compared to a hotter one and best of all, you can over clock it!

RAM
Next get 4GB of RAM into your system. Make sure that your motherboard can support the amount of RAM and remember to count how many available slots for your RAM. High performance RAM is much more expensive but you'll be getting higher performance as well - approximately 10 to 30 percent better performance. Try getting two 2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 RAM or four 1GB Low Latency DDR PC-3200 SDRAM at 400 MHz - depending on the slot availability of your motherboard.

Motherboard
As for the motherboard, NVidia has a good track record. I would recommend that you get NVidia's nForce 4 SLI X16. This motherboard is needed to support your AMD 64 X2 dual core processor. If you are planning to get Intel Core 2 Duo processor, then get Intel's 975X chipset with Intel Core 2 Duo support.

Power Supply and Casing
Personally I prefer Alienware's casing. I just love the high-tech look in the casing. You can get either the standard 700-watt power supply unit or 1000-watt. I recommend you to get the 1000-watt because some graphic cards are simply power-demanding. I've got bad experience from using a lower wattage power supply - the graphics card was damaged and it almost fried my motherboard from over heating as well.

Graphics card
This is the most important component when assembling a high-end gaming PC. Graphics card delivers quality graphics to you and getting your hands on a great card helps in every way. Try getting an 8th generation GeForce card and for this I recommend Dual NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX - this graphics card can blow your eyes out! It is one of the latest graphics card released on the market and it can fill 36.8 billion pixels per second - That's double of what 7th generation graphics card can deliver.

Hard drive
Get at least a 500GB hard drive for your system or connect two 250GB hard drive to your motherboard. Personally I would recommend that you get Seagate or Western Digital drives. I've been using these drives for more than 10 years and didn't experience any major problems with them.

Display
Samsung have a good track record in their display or monitors. Having a fast system with huge display unit would also increase your gaming experience. Get at least two 32 inch Samsung LCD screen and put it side by side.

Sound card and speaker system
Sound Blaster dominated the sound card industry for years. For your sound card, get Sound Blaster's X-FI PCI sound card. It's a 7.1 channel sound card which promised to deliver clear and crisp sound. Having a good sound card without fantastic speaker system to deliver the sound would not tally. Get Logitech or a Sound Blaster speaker system. Also try getting a sound system that supports entirely the sound card and the number of available channels.

Peripherals
Always use an optical mouse and a standard keyboard. Logitech have great track records in their peripherals. Playing games on your PC might require some precision in your mouse thus having a good optical mouse ensures quality gaming. Of course, never forget to equip your PC system with a surge protector - protects it from lightning or simply a power surge.

Good luck and may this guide help you in building your ultimate gaming machine.