Guru3D PC Buyer's Guide Summer 2008

news · August 20, 2008

It is time to build that dream PC before you head off for school!

Surely you do not have to take our advice for granted, but at the

very least let us help you a little. Guru3D's guide will only cover

the box. Monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers are not included. I do

this for brevity's sake, as the monitor alone would require its own

guide, especially if I were to cover LCD monitors. Since this site is

called "Guru3D" this guide will target a system intended for gaming

primarily.

So what sort of criteria do I take into account when deciding what

parts to recommend?

Price and Performance: First and foremost, what gives the most bang

for your buck, in terms of gaming primarily of course.

Reliablity: Second on the list but just as important. This includes

things such as compatability (ever had RAM that worked on one

motherboard but not in another?), trustworthiness of a brand overall

(do they have a history of making reliable parts?) in addition to the

reliablity of the part in question.

Overclockability: Overclocking can help squeeze out that extra

performance out of a system and can make a big impact on price versus

performance (why should you buy a $1000 CPU if you can overclock a

$200 CPU to match it?) so this factor can always swing my decision.

Heat and Power Issues: Heat is the enemy of a computer and it can

affect the stability (and reliablity) of your machine. Performance

per watt has become a buzz word and as power requirements for

computers rise I eye this more and more closely.

Check it here:

Small note - Guru3D will be reporting live from the Games Conference

in leipzig and next week we'll coiver the massive NVISION08

conference in San Jose California.

Stay tuned !

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