How to Customize Your Computer for the Ultimate Gaming Experience

With the new generation of video games, upgrading your computer may be a necessary process for keeping up with the expanding gaming market. New games are making ever-greater demands for hardware that older versions of computers simply cannot meet.

Some people invest a lot of money purchasing the super-powerful Alienware machines to play the latest video games. However, spending more than $1000 dollars on a computer is not absolutely necessary to play the most technologically advanced games. Believe it or not, you can customize your current computer so that it will be as powerful as the higher-end, more expensive computer models.

The CPU

One of the most important factors in upgrading your computer is your central processing unit. You have to make sure that your CPU is fast enough to run the latest video games on the market. The Intel Core 2 Duo processor or the AMD Athlon 64 X2 come highly recommended. Dual processors are the latest string of CPUs and they are becoming the standard of the computer world.

Display

Modern video games demand higher graphical processing power. For this, it is recommended that you purchase a graphics card. Graphics cards relieve the CPU of the workload of generating graphics and that makes the computer run much more efficiently. Consider purchasing a NVIDIA GeForce model or any one of the current ATI graphics models.

Your graphics card should have at least 128 megabytes of memory, but we suggest investing in a slightly more powerful model with about 256 megabytes of video memory. 128 megabytes of video memory is usually a sufficient amount of memory, but if you have the money, purchasing a model with greater capacity will prove to be more useful in the long run. As far as monitors go, an LCD display as opposed to the older CRT models is recommended.

Hard Drive

Most modern computers come with a hard drive of at least 160 gigabytes of storage space or more. However, we suggest purchasing multiple hard drives so you can have a sufficient amount of space to store all of your files.

Multiple hard drives are also more efficient than single hard drives because you can assign each hard drive to a specific file type such as videos, music, etc.

Optical Media

We strongly recommend a DVD drive as opposed to the dated CD-ROM drives. DVD drives are capable or reading CDs as well as DVDs and this will prove to be more useful as more games are being distributed in DVD format.

Peripherals

Keyboard: All keyboards work in a similar fashion, as they all contain approximately 101 keys. To reduce fatigue, purchase a keyboard with a wrist-pad.

Mouse: We suggest a mouse with 3 buttons and a scroll. Many games are starting to utilize that evasive third button.

Game-pad: If you don't enjoy using the keyboard to navigate through video games, we suggest buying a ergonomic game-pad. I suggest the Microsoft Sidewinder model or the X Box 360 controller.

Microphone: Some online games offer an online chat feature. A microphone would be a more convenient method of communication than typing.

Speakers: Any quality pair of speakers will deliver rich audio playback. However, we suggest investing in a surround sound system, as they provide a much more enriching gaming experience.

Internet connection: With the integration of online play in many video games, an Internet connection has become an imperative necessity. We suggest subscribing to a cable Internet connection over DSL because you will enjoy an overall increase in speed and performance while playing online.