High End

PC Buyers Guide High EndTarget Resolution: 1600x1200 with 4x AA and 16x AF or better

I have diverged from previous guides as this guide will only cover the box. Monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers are not included. I do this for brevity sake, as the monitor alone would require it's own guide, especially if covering LCD monitors. Since this site is called "Guru3D" this guide will target a system intended for gaming primarily. I have also taken into account power and heat issues (*cough* Pentium 4 *cough*), overclockability to some extent, reliability, as well as price. For those wondering about "Target Resolution," instead of listing a particular pricepoint (since price will vary somewhat with vender) I have listed here what type of resolutions you can expect to be playing most of today's games on such a rig. AA stands for antialiasing and AF stands for Anisotropic Filtering, if you don't know what those are... well are you sure you want to be building your own computer? ;)

Processor AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (Socket 939) Retail

I thought it a fitting time for a dual core processor to make the list for the high end machine, it will help ensure not only the best gaming experience, but also the best over computing experience. And when it comes to gaming the AMD Athlon 64 X2's are miles ahead of the Pentium D in terms of performance. You'll notice I didn't choose the highest price model... honestly if you have enough money to spend $1000 USD or so on the highest end CPU, why not buy this CPU and use the spare $500 USD to go SLI (or Crossfire)!?

Heatsink and Fan Included

Thanks to the integrated heat spreader and lower core voltage of the new Athlon 64, these CPUs do not need quite as elaborate a heatsink that the Athlon XP needed to stay cool. The stock heatsink and fan easily handles the cooling of the Athlon 64. If you want a little extra cooling then there are several fine solid copper heatsinks on the market, I would recommend the Thermaltake Venus 7+. For the Pentium M I recommended you would be hard pressed to find a seperate cooler, but given the ridiculously low power usage and thermals, you don't need to go looking. Also don't forget to get some quality thermal paste, it can make a significant difference in your CPU temperature, Artic Silver 5 is highly recommended.

Overclockers: No retail heatsink will suffice for you now will it!? For you I suggest snagging one of the high-end coolers from Thermalright or Swiftech.

Motherboard nForce4 SLI / SLI X16

The nForce4 chipset has proven itself a worthy successor to the nForce3 chipset. The most noticeable feature is SLI, which as you all must know by now allows for you to run two video cards together for significantly improved gaming performance. Some other highlights of the chipset include SATA-II support, which among other things allows for transfer speeds of 300 MB/s compared to SATAs 150 (although the term SATA-II is being used quite loosely by some hard drive manufacturers, so beware). Lets not forget NVIDIA's implementation of their Gigabit LAN as well as the offering of an onboard hardware firewall. NVIDIA has implemented the Gigabit LAN on the nForce4 chip itself (yes it is a one-chip, not two chip, solution), thereby completely freeing itself from the bottleneck caused by the PCI bus. The result is the best performing onboard LAN while offering the lowest possible CPU utilization. On top of this, the easily configurable hardware firewall (via web interface) will make you feel safe from hackers, worms and other online woes that come with an always-on broadband connection. This is an improved version of the firewall that was included with the nForce3 250 Gb chipset, now dubbed ActiveArmor©. And since it's hardware, it eliminates many of the software conflicts, lowers CPU utilization and offers more throughput when compared to a software firewall. Also, unlike a software firewall, your computer is protected from the very moment you power it on, whereas a software firewall must wait for the OS to at least partially load, leaving your computer vulnerable for a short period. Very nice indeed. The new SLI X16 provides 32 PCI-Express lanes for a full 16 lanes to each PCI-Express graphics card in SLI mode (where as the original SLI chipset only provided 8 lanes), which can provide a welcome gaming boost in bandwidth intensive operations (ie SLI Antialising modes).

Alright now I know ATI fans want to know... what about Crossfire? The last guide I stated it would be a question of whether the chipset can match the nForce4 in terms of features, price, stability and performance. I should have added availability to that list. From a performance standpoint the Crossfire can definitely match the nForce4 chispet, especially for gaming. However the boards have yet to gain widespread availability (and good luck finding Crossfire Master cards for the X1800 series), the price of the boards right now is much higher than a SLI board, there are some USB and PCI bandwidth issues and it lacks some of the key features that the competing nForce4 chipset boasts. I think it will take a few more driver revisions along with a revamped southbridge for Crossfire to truly shine. If you want to go Crossfire, I firmly believe you should wait a few more months before you build your rig.

Editor's Choice: Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe. Based on the new SLI X16 chipset, this motherboard is absolutely stunning. This board is packed with all sorts of extras to set it apart: 8 phase power design, external SATA connection, an impressive passive, copper heatpiped chipset solution. This is exactly what you should demand of a high end motherboard.

Hard Drive  500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA

500 GB! Gotta love that, all the room you need for anything you can think of! Music, movies, videos... just think of the HTPC possibilities as well. This drive is fast too, thanks to a huge 16 MB cache, SATA-II interface and support for Native Command Queuing (NCQ, a disk seek optimization technique), which should further improve hard drive performance on motherboards that support NCQ. Got some extra cash? Buy a second and set it up in RAID 0 (1 TB of HD space... *drool*). This drive also comes with an outstanding 5 year warranty.

Alternatively those of you comfortable with RAID arrays (and without the cash to spend on two of the aforementioned drive) should look at picking up a pair of 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA drives, which again come with that outstanding 5 year warranty.

Memory  2 GB PC3200 DDR RAM

Even 1 GB is not enough for for some games (example: BF2, MMO's) so for the high end machine it's time to step up to 2 GB. 

For DDR users: Make sure you get at least PC3200 RAM so you aren't starving your processor of memory bandwidth. If you plan to overclock consider purchasing the faster PC3500, PC3700, or PC4000 modules. Just be sure to make sure the RAM uses the faster memory timings (example: Cas 2-3-3-6 T1) and check the default voltage, if it is above the default 2.5v, make sure your motherboard will support it. Also don't forget to buy that RAM in matched pairs so you can take advantage of dual channel for a slight boost to performance.

Editor's Choice: OCZ Enhanced Latency PC3200 Platinum Edition. Supports fantastic memory timings (CAS 2-3-2-5 T1), comes with stylish heatspreaders, excellent price.

Video Card GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB or 2x 7800 GT SLI

ATI was very late to the table with their X1800XT and NVIDIA was laying in wait with a significantly faster 7800. Boasting significantly boosted clock and memory speeds, the latest 7800 GTX easily outpaces the X1800XT, running cooler, quieter and faster. ATI will undoubtedly quickly respond, which makes the X1800XT an even less attractive buy for those who like to have the best and fastest. A cheaper alternative to the GTX (since prices on this card remain high) may be 2 7800 GT's in SLI, which should offer some outstanding performance.

If you want to go extremely wild and can spare over 1100 USD on graphics cards, then buy two and enable the lovely SLI mode. Check out our 7800 GTX SLI review to see what will happen then!

    Check out Guru3D related reviews:
    GeForce 7800 GTX
    GeForce 7800 GTX SLI
    Point of View 7800 GTX

Sound Card Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum

After a long wait, something new in the world of sound cards. Creative has made some big advances with their latest generation that you audiophile will be sure to appreciate.

Our own audiophile Brann Mitchel : Playing a few games with Creative's latest sound card in your rig will convince you that there really isn't anything better than the X-Fi.  It doesn't matter which of the four models you choose either, you'll still get blistering performance in any game you choose with the powerful new APU, CMSS 3D Headphone, and EAX Advanced HD 5.0. While Creative's X-Fi is no doubt the performance leader in gaming, it will also impress you with its music capability.  We get lots of sound cards that offer one or the other, good sound or good gaming, but the X-Fi really delivers both.  It has that rare ability to make you play song after song just to hear how they sound through the X-Fi.  For these reasons, the X-Fi is our new reference.

    Check out Guru3D related reviews:
    Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound Blaster
    Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS Sound Blaster

DVD-RW Drive Plextor 716AL Slot-Loading DVD Burner

Well this is a high-end machine so why not go with a high-end burner? Plextor is the premium choice for burners. This drive arrives in style, featuring a slot-loading mechanism instead of the traditional tray. It also features an above average 8 MB buffer, 16x DVD burning speeds, an above average 6x Dual Layer DVD burning speed along with the now traditional Plextor technologies. If you're looking for something "different" in a DVD burner, you might want to look at a LightScribe capable drive. This will allow you to burn a label (or image or whatever you want) onto your disks, no more barely legible permanent marker labeling!

No need to buy a separate network card, the motherboard I recommended comes with the fastest LAN already available onboard. For those of you wondering where the modem is, let me say this: gamers dont use modems! Get broadband.

Case

Okay Im going leave this one open to your decision. Cases are a love-hate thing, what one person likes another will not. So go find a case you think suites you. I have a few suggestions when looking for a case. Aluminum is a definite plus; it will make your computer significantly lighter. 120mm fans are the way to go as well, ensuring good airflow in your case while maintaining a minimum of noise.

Editor's Choice: A number of good cases come to mind. Antec Performance 1 P160. A truly breathtaking aluminum case. Comes with or without a side window, 2 120mm case fans for maximum airflow at a minimum of noise, rubber grommets to reduce hard drive vibrations (and noise), washable air filter, LED temperature display and much more... For those of you who love a Mac's sleek looks than you may want to buy Lian-Li PC-V1200, again comes with 2 120mm fans and is all aluminum. Finally there is the Thermaltake "Shark," again featuring aluminum contruction, a stylish look and 2 120mm fans.

Power Supply - OCZ PowerStream 600 Watt

New video cards and new processors are starting to pull A LOT of power. And the situation will not improve (SLI didn't help now did it?).

Time to go out and get the biggest and best power supply you can, do not skimp on the power supply! This is such an overlooked part and yet it is the source of so many computer woes.

Check the amps on the 12V rail, you want a power supply that can handle a lot (for frame of reference: NVIDIA recommends 350 Watt with 22A on the 12V rail for a single 7800 GTX). Another plus to look for is a power supply with dual fans to help with cooling. Just remember: don't try and buy a cheap generic brand to save some cash, just because it says 480 Watts (or whatever the number is) doesn't mean it can actually handle that, sadly.

Quality counts big, be sure to get a quality power supply or you will face any number of problems. OCZ really entered the power supply market with a bang, these are some top-notch power supplies. You can even manually adjust the voltage on each of the rails to ensure the voltages are excatly what they should be.

Yes folks .. that's it for this edition. We hope you can put this guide to some use in your choices of building a gaming rig! Have a very merry Christmas :)