Absolute Beginners Guide to Upgrading and Fixing Your PC

Application #1: PC Gaming

What can you do to beef up your system for better game play?

First, you'll want to start with a fairly high-powered microprocessor. It may seem excessive but trust me when I say you'll want a Pentium 4 running at 2.4GHz or more. If you have an older, less-powerful PC, no upgrade in the world will make the most-demanding games play smoothly on your system.

"Mike Sez"

Assuming you have enough horsepower, you should consider upgrading almost everything else in your system. You should go with a fairly large hard disk, lots of memory, and a 3D sound card connected to a kick-ass surround sound speaker system. You'll also need a CD-ROM drive, and possibly a DVD drive many of the new games come on a single DVD rather than multiple CDs.

As to video cards, you want to get the newest and most expensive one you can afford. For new games like Doom III and Half-Life 2, you'll need a card with 3D graphics acceleration, 256MB of video RAM, and compatibility with Microsoft's new DirectX 9 technology, which allows enhanced shading effects and the layering of different textures. Expect to pay up to $500 for one of these cards.

The result of these upgrades is a state-of-the-art gaming system, as shown in Figure 14.1.

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Upgrade Checklist for PC Gaming

80GB or larger hard disk (see Chapter 4, "Bigger Is Better: Upgrading System Storage")

CD/DVD drive (see Chapter 5, "Optical Tricks: Upgrading CD and DVD Drives")

512MB or more RAM (see Chapter 6)

256MB video card with 3D graphics accelerator and DirectX 9 compatibility (see Chapter 9, "The Big Picture: Upgrading Video Cards and Monitors")

19-inch CRT or 17-inch LCD monitor (see Chapter 9)

3D sound card (see Chapter 10, "Pet Sounds: Upgrading Video Cards and Monitors")

4.1 surround sound speaker system with subwoofer (see Chapter 10)

Joystick or other game controller (see Chapter 7, "Point and Click: Upgrading Mice and Keyboards")