Russell's New Rig: Part 1

The time has come. My wonderful shoe box computer has served me well. I've had it now for two years and eight months. For a computer enthusiast like myself, that is way past time for an upgrade. Truth be told, it has been performing satisfactorily for most of that time. Plus, I've had many changes to my personal life in the last year (new job with way more responsibility, 2^nd kid, new house) that I simply haven't had time to play that many games. Perhaps you've noticed the lack of content on NG. This is why. But, I'm starting to find more time for my gaming habit and the PC gaming world is alive and well, albeit with fewer titles overall. I like to think however, the titles that play on the PC seem to be, on average, of better quality than their console counterparts.

The reality set in though that I needed to upgrade over the last six months. About a year ago, Geb and I switched video cards. I gave him my Radeon 9800 Pro in exchange for his Geforce 6800. He was building a new machine and thus no longer needed the power it provided (since his old rig was going to his son) so he figured the 9800 was all he needed for a kid's computer. Most of the last year I have been having periodic lock ups after gaming for awhile and I can only figure that the measly power supply in my Shuttle is no longer up to the tasks. That, or the memory is going bad, I don't know. The machine runs fine for the most part and did great at our annual New Year's day LAN party, but the lockups are getting old and are even starting to occur outside of gaming. Bottom line, something ain't right and I'm sure the age of the machine is part of it. That, and oh yeah, I have to turn everything down to play Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.

Bottom line, it is time for a new machine. This series of articles will tell the story of my shopping and building experience.

First off, what am I looking for in a new rig? The last time I shopped, size really mattered. I was attending LAN parties more often so lugging around the machine I was wanting to replace, which was in a steel Antec server tower, was back breaking work. Myself and most of my friends were all going the Shuttle route. I can tell you that I have been really satisfied with Shuttle. Their small form factor boxes are the perfect size, are configured well and the build quality is first rate. The beauty of Shuttle is that they are designed for enthusiasts who build their own computers. Everything about the box is well thought out. From the heat pipe design to the route of cables it's really fairly easy to assemble your machine. The only down side you kind of have to disassemble most of the parts to get to any one part other than the video card. But, they can't change physics, so that is simply the nature of such a small box.

Given that LAN party gaming is more of a rarity for me now, the size of the case is lower on the priority list. So, I've got new priorities. The new "must have" feature for my new box is low noise. Before the new job, I worked from home for four years and most of that time I had at least two machines running at any given time. The constant "whirring" of system fans, hard drives and video cards has really gotten to me. I can't stand computer noise. If it wasn't for my video game hobby, I most definitely would go the quiet laptop route. I work 100% on a laptop for my job now and the silence of my Dell Centrino laptop is a godsend.

So PC noise, or lack there of, is where I'm going to spend my premium dollars.

My priorities in shopping are as follows, in order:

1. Low PC Noise
2. Performance
3. Value

I should say that Performance and value are one in the same. I have a cap on what I'm willing to spend (roughly $1,400). Given that $100-$150 is going towards features to make my PC quiet, the remainder will be spent on the best performance for the price.

Another factor on performance is the impending release of Windows Vista and DirectX 10. The computer I'm building will be Vista ready and will probably fall above the "recommended" performance level from ATI's Vista testing tool but will be a bit below "optimal." But, in October 2006, I am not going to overspend on tech for Vista. This is what we know at this time about Windows Vista:

• Vista isn't out yet
• Vista will probably be released with a lot of bugs, given that the Release candidates feel more like a beta
• There will probably be a lack of hardware support, particularly on 64-bit
• DirectX 10 will almost certainly be buggy
• DirectX 10 video cards are still a month or two away and they will only be at the very high end with mainstream cards at least six months out
• Video games won't take full advantage of DirectX 10 until spring of next year, at the earliest
• Basically, for a gamer, there is no real need for Vista and Direct X 10 until well into next year

The only feature in Vista that has any appeal at this time is the Windows Live version of Xbox Live. But, games that support that won't be out until next year either.

So, given that, I don't see the need to spend more than $350 (tops!) on a DirectX 9 video card. I certainly won't do an SLI or Crossfire configuration at this point. I figure that I won't even think of upgrading to Vista until next summer.

In looking for a video card, I basically want something that will play every game that is out right now at a fairly cranked up graphics level (HL2, F.E.A.R, Oblivion, BF2 and  BF2142). So, going dirt cheap on the card isn't reasonable right now either, particularly for something like Oblivion. That's why I'm targeting the $300 price range for video cards. A $300 card purchased now should also be able to play upcoming titles like Bioshock and Crysis at a fairly good level as well. I am purchasing the video card with the full intention to upgrade it within 18 months. So I need something with some oomph and some longevity (in the gaming world that is) but also I don't want to break the bank. Hence the $300 price range, which fits in with the upper mid range of modern video cards.

For the CPU, I am again looking at price/performance with the willingness to pay a little premium for performance. I can say this definitively: I will be switching back to Intel after having AMD power my last three machines. I've said many times that I'm CPU agnostic. I really like AMD and appreciate what they've done but, given that I'm buying right now, I can't wait until the spring for them to produce an answer to Intel's Core Duo 2 line of processors. The price range I'm looking at on the processor is between $300 and $400.

One reason I build my machines is so I can scavenge parts. I will be taking the 250 GB SATA 150 drive I currently have with me to the new machine. My DVD burner has been acting up so I'm just going to buy a new one since they are cheap and basically commodity parts at this time. Basically, except for the hard drive, everything will be new.

That's the lay of the land on what I'm looking for. I have already done some research, the results of which I will discuss in my next article. So, follow me along on the exciting experience of buying a new computer.