|
With millions of subscribers playing massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), the market for high quality computers capable of gaming has become blossomed. More and more computer manufacturers are targeting this lucrative market group filled with young (and not-so-young) purchases all needing absolutely the best performance from their desktop computer. Online games such as Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, and World of Warcraft are just three of the more popular MMORPGs available today. With advancing technologies in graphics, animation and sound, even offline gamers will find a high performance desktop computer a necessity. All games, whether offline or a MMORPG, are subject to a minimum hardware specification required to play the game. While the system will not perform or function without those minimum requirements met, so these really are the absolute minimum, the gaming experience is greatly increased by providing more than these base requirements. In some cases the game is virtually unplayable if the computer’s specs are not considerably higher than those noted on by the game. One of the most important factors to gamers in their computers is the video card, closely followed by the amount, speed and type of RAM. Of course, the processor speed and the monitor also play an important role. When it comes to a gaming desktop there is really no such thing as overkill – you can never have too much of a computer – and it also gives you some numbers that you can throw around to impress your friends at parties, right? The fact is, though, the more powerful the computer, the higher the cost will be. Looking for an affordable, reliable, gaming computer with room for growth? The HP Pavilion Media Center PC (RT586AA) offers a great entry level gaming computer at an affordable price. The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo process with an Intel 945G express chipset. The platform is an impressive Intel Viiv of the newest technology. The DDR2-SDRAM is the newest possible ram on the market offering better performance. The HP Pavilion Media Center PC comes with 1GB of ram, but offers 4 DIMM sockets for future expansion. The HP Pavilion Media Center PC also offers a PCI-express 16x video adapter which comes equipped with the popular and powerful NVIDIA GeForce 7500 LE. The 256MB of dedicated memory on this card means your system will not be using the 1GB of SDRAM for graphical purposes – a crucial factor when playing graphically intense games. Another popular gaming system is the newest computer by Dell designed specifically with the hardcore gamer in mind. The Dell XPS 710 PC is one of the high performers in the sector. The processor is an impressive Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor Quad-Core QX6700. Don't know which printer to buy? Read full review here The chipset is the astounding NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP core logic. Okay, what does that mean? Imagine being able to enable not one but two graphic cards at the same time rendering a single image - this offers the ultimate in visual experiences. The DDR2 dual channel SDRAM channel means you can utilize up to 4GB of RAM. The more RAM you have (in theory), the more applications you can run simultaneously without the dreaded lag beast affecting your performance. The HP Pavilion Media Center PC is approximately £485 (ex VAT) for the computer.. The Dell XPS 710 PC is approximately £1,200 (inc. VAT). Neither include a monitor. As is obvious, both computer systems have potential as gaming systems, but both systems also make a good, all-purpose computer system. The best desktop for gaming will offer an experience free from the lag monster. This is a careful combination of the RAM, the processor, and the video card. The Dell XPS 710 PC is obviously more expensive than the HP Pavilion, but you have to ask yourself which one is more likely to be around longer. As gaming advances so does the technological need of the computer used for gaming. A good suggestion for a gaming computer is to have at least 1GB of RAM, a 2 GHz processor, and a video card that is not an onboard vidset with at least 128Mb of dedicated video RAM. Any less of a processor, RAM or video card will cause the computer to perform poorly when gaming; an onboard video card is simply not a Good Thing for a gaming computer. If the video card shares RAM, consider that the video RAM is coming from your slower main RAM for performance and will slow down the entire system. Naturally these specs are only good at the time of writing: with technological advance going at the speed it is, these need reviewing before each and every purchase and upgrade. At the very least your machine should be able to run the games currently on the market with some room to spare. Finding a good gaming computer will provide the gamer will a seamless and high quality performance. Remember, with a gaming computer, the more you spend on features the better it is likely to run the latest epic game.
Staff editor, Electronics Section, March 2007 |
