KillaRad Computers - Gaming PC Buyer's Guide
Updated February 15, 2009

How do you know if a "gaming PC" is any good?

With so many spec's, and changing technology all the time, how do you make the best choice in buying that new computer?  Here is a brief write-up going into PC processors and graphics cards, and touching on reliability in a gaming PC, along with upgradeability.

CPU's

Intel is historically known for the Pentium brand, mainly the Pentium 4 and the following dual-core version, the "Pentium D" processor.  After this they introduced the Intel Core Duo and then the Core 2 Duo, and finally, the Core 2 Quad, which has four CPU's in one chip.  The Core 2 series is still the current mainstream processor from Intel.  The latest and greatest Intel processor is the Core i7.  Instead of calling their new quad-core processor the Core 3 Quad, they have begun a new naming convention with the i7.  Previously computers and processors were judged mainly by the processor clock speed in MHz, pronounced MegaHertz (1,000,000 cycles per second) and GHz, pronounced GigaHertz (which is 1,000 MegaHertz).  Now, however with processor technology being constantly redesigned, we use processor model numbers which are relative to speed.

In the desktop PC segment Intel has the E series of dual-core processors (sort of a successor to the Pentium D) with model numbers like the Core 2 Duo E4300, E4400, E4500, etc.  The latest models are the E8000 series including the Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.66 GigaHertz), E8400 (3.0 GHz), E8500 (3.16 GHz), and E8600 (3.33 GHz).  The thousands number, 8 in this case, indicates the family, with the hundreds number showing relative performance within that family.  The Intel Core 2 Quad series started out with the Q6600 and Q6700, with newer models in the Q8000 series and better more energy efficient ones in the Q9000 series.  These include the Q9400 (2.66 GHz), Q9550 (2.83 GHz), and Q9650 (3.0 GHz).

Intel also makes Extreme Edition processors which are the fastest PC processors available, intended for sales to gamers, and those who want the very best available.  This gives us the Core 2 Extreme and Core i7 Extreme Edition processors.  The Core i7 series has changed the model numbers again with the Core i7 920 (2.66 GHz), Core i7 940 (2.93 GHz), and the Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (3.2 GHz).  Overall the slowest Core i7 beats the fastest Core 2 chip.

AMD's latest CPU's are the Phenom II quad-core processors, which have the advantage of a built-in memory controller, right inside the processor itself instead of in the "chipset".  AMD took the lead from Intel in use of processor model numbers instead of processor clock speed.  AMD's top end processors at the time of publication are not as competitive with Intel's top end, but their mid-range and low-end models are very competitive with Intel in performance and value.  AMD Athlon 64 X2 processors range from the 3600+ (1.9 GHz) to the 6400+ (3.2 GHz), spanning a range competitive with Intel's Core 2 Duo's up to around 2.66 GHz.  The newest Athlon X2 7000 series performs similar to mid-range Core 2 based dual-core processors.  The AMD Phenom X4 9000 series quad-core processors are generally a little below Intel's popular Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz processor.  The new Phenom II X4 900 series quad-core processors are a little faster, with the Phenom II X4 940 (3.0 GHz) comparable so far to Intel's Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66 GHz processor.

Historically AMD has given more focus to energy efficiency, and their ingenious socket strategy may provide more long term upgradeability even if they don't exactly have the fastest out there today.  AMD's newest processors use AMD's new Socket AM3, and these processors are designed to be optimal with DDR3 memory, which is still more expensive than DDR2.  However, the AM3 processors fit just fine in a Socket AM2+ motherboard and also support using DDR2 memory instead.  PC enthusiasts demand upgradeability, and AMD is very smart to accommodate this.

With a traditional gaming computer you're buying something that is more durable, and has more of a lifespan to it.  With a car, or say an appliance, you might expect to be able to get replacement parts for it if the need arose, but probably not anything extremely customized or expanded upon outside the original factory specifications.  KillaRad PC's use industry-standard parts (high end ones actually), so with the modularity built into the machine and the wide industry of different hardware components, a KillaRad PC is going to be an investment that you can choose to expand on in the future.

Dual Core vs. Quad Core

While many hit games out now are taking advantage of dual core and quad core processors, not all of the software is designed to yet.  In that case, in comparing a fast dual core processor to a slower clocked quad core processor, the dual may win out.  For example think of only one core running on a 3.33 GigaHertz Intel Core 2 Duo processor versus only one core on a 2.33 GigaHertz Intel Core 2 Quad.  On the other hand, buying a quad core is more forward looking for future games and applications, and when it comes down to it you can get away with running more software at once, more smoothly.  More software is gradually being released supporting quad-core processors from both Intel and AMD.  AMD has practically abandoned marketing dual core processors and is mainly offering quad-core and triple-core Phenom processors now.

When it comes to gaming performance, more weight should be placed on buying a more expensive graphics card rather than buying the most expensive CPU.  Regardless of what you end up choosing, you can't go wrong buying on your budget from KillaRad since the low end stuff you may find with other companies is out of the question.  Note that we also sell multimedia PC's in addition to gaming PC's, so while the multimedia PC's are solid computers, by default they aren't designed with any serious state-of-the-art gaming performance in mind.

Reliability

Some companies will try to sell you a PC with an overclocked processor.  While this may win a magazine's or a website's benchmark tests, editors don't keep the PC's they review, and they don't revisit or update product reviews.  An editor would never reveal in the months or years since the original review, if problems have cropped up.  An overclocked PC can break at any time.  It can have a reduced reliability, such as Windows blue screen crashes.  Some overclocked computers are required to be left powered on all the time, wasting electricity.  What you could end up doing buying an overclocked system is paying more money for less peace of mind.  You wouldn't like it if you called another company's tech support about a problem, and the first thing they instructed you to do was reduce the overclock down to zero percent.  It's a perfectly sensible troubleshooting practice, but at that point of course you aren't getting what you thought you were buying.  Stability and longevity are what you expect when you purchase a higher performing computer, and that's what we aim to deliver.

KillaRad Computers has partnered with both AMD and Intel, and we use components that operate as their manufacturer intended them to.  While on our highest end computers we offer the choice of overclocked graphics cards, these GPU's are well tested and the cards run at manufacturer specified speeds.  The cards also have a lifetime warranty through their manufacturer.

GPU's

A GPU is a graphics processing unit on a graphics card.  Formerly they were just called graphics chips, but today they rival the complexity of a CPU.  GPU's can be made for a variety of price points and markets.  The two main brands of GPU's are GeForce by nVIDIA, and Radeon by ATI.  You can tell the power of a graphics card basically by looking at the model number of its GPU, but you have to know how to read it, and you have to know how up to date it is.  If a computer has a GeForce 7100 GPU, it's a GeForce 7 family, 100 level, or "entry level" graphics.  A GeForce 7600 would run rings around a 7100.  At the same time, while the GeForce 8200 and 9300 are basically the same, they're substantially newer and better than the GeForce 7100.  Also look at the suffix of a model number if it has one, such as SE, LE, GS, GT, GTS, GTX, Pro, XT, or Ultra.  With an nVIDIA GeForce card, a GS will usually be weaker than a GT, with a GTS or GTX (or sometimes an Ultra) being progressively more fast.  The new Radeon HD 3000 and 4000 series GPU's actually do away with suffixes in favor of only using model numbers.  Some models of course become discontinued periodically, and performance levels can vary widely among different GPU family models.

Some of our PC's offer technology to combine multiple identical graphics cards.  With nVIDIA, their technology is called S.L.I.  With ATI, theirs is called CrossFire, or CrossFireX.  What you could do, is buy a higher end PC with this technology either with two identical graphics cards, or a PC that has one card which is upgradeable to two or more.  The latter allows you save money on a PC now, and potentially add another card in the future to increase the graphics power by as much as 1.7 times, 1.8 times, or in some games actually twice the speed.  Again, this delivers higher resolutions like 1080p and beyond, with increased smoothness of in-game motion, increased detail, and more realism.  If you love first-person action games, these technologies come well recommended.  Previously nVIDIA's SLI was superior, but now the capabilities of CrossFireX and SLI technologies are evenly matched.  With systems that support dual PCI-Express x16 slots, you can run two dual GPU cards for a four GPU system.  This is great for running the most graphically intense games at the highest resolutions.  For example it takes a three or four GPU system to run Crysis in 1080p.  If you want to gear up for gaming at beyond 1080p, choosing a three or four GPU capable system would be a good investment.

At this time with regards to nVIDIA GPU's, the GeForce 9800 GT cards are offering the best performance for the least price. These are great for roughly 720p resolutions, or higher, depending on whether you choose a 512 MegaByte or 1 GigaByte model.

The high end cards in recent years have started with the _800 model number.  For example a GeForce 8800 'something' should supersede the older GeForce 7 family's top end GeForce 7900 GTX.  However a GeForce 7800 or 7900 something may be quite faster in many games than a GeForce 8 GPU prior to the 8800, such as an 8500 or 8600. These _800 or _900 models are what are called enthusiast-class GPU's, and they surpass the 'mainstream' or 'performance-class' GPU's.

We've reached a bit of a temporary plateau in performance advances since the GeForce 9800 GT is fundamentally the same as an 8800 GT. The 8800 GT with 512MB is virtually the same as a 9800 GTX with 512MB. (The 9800 GTX and 9800 GTX+ support using three identical cards in 3-Way SLI.) Additionally, prices have come down substantially for very nice graphics. With the 8800 GT and 9800 GT at roughly a $130.00 value, you get performance that used to belong to the $600.00 GeForce 8800 GTX.

Now nVIDIA's latest line of GPU's is the GeForce GTX family.  This includes the GeForce GTX 260, the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, the GeForce GTX 280, and the GeForce GTX 285, each of which are capable of 3-Way SLI.  The GTX 260 Core 216 is the best value in nVIDIA's latest generation of enthusiast-class GPU's.

nVIDIA also has released a dual GPU graphics card model called the GeForce GTX 295.  When paired together, two GTX 295's create a four GPU graphics mode called Quad-SLI.  Previous dual GPU cards, the GeForce 7950 GX2 and GeForce 9800 GX2 have mixed reviews in retrospect, due to varying support in graphics drivers and some complaints of micro-stuttering in certain games.  So far the GeForce GTX 295 is regarded at the best graphics card on the market, and the finest single graphics card to date.  Essentially it has two GeForce GTX 285 chips on one card, and the chips are clocked at the 260's speeds so that they don't produce too much heat or consume an exorbitant amount of power.

With ATI's Radeon family all you really need to know is that the Radeon HD 4800 series are the cards to look for.  The Radeon HD 4830 compares to the GeForce 9800 GT, and the 4850 and 4870 compare to the GeForce 9800 GTX / GTX+ and the GeForce GTX 260.  At this point, lesser Radeon GPUs don't deserve your attention when it comes to high performance gaming.  The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is a groundbreaking dual-GPU graphics card with Two GigaBytes of memory, which was the graphics leader for many months until the GeForce GTX 295 showed up.

Understandably, throwing around all of these model numbers can be hard to follow if you're not accustomed to shopping for graphics cards and keeping that kind of knowledge in your head.  However, this allows you to understand the ranking and pricing of the spec's of gaming PC's.

By offering enthusiast class GPU's in our gaming PC lines, we ensure you get a high performance gaming computer, whichever one you choose.  Other companies might not follow this same standard for performance, and they can do that to lure you in with a lower price with specs that are unacceptable for a "gaming PC".

What it comes down to is that the GPU affects performance in gaming more than a CPU, and buyers can easily be taken advantage of when they don't know this.  Most people are more trained to buy a computer based on CPU speed, which is why this happens.

Game developers make their games so you can turn down detail levels to make the game more playable on a lower cost CPU or GPU.  It's usually possible to compromise and play a game at DVD resolution instead of HD resolutions, such as 1280 by 960 or 720p or 768p or higher.  Choosing a PC with a more powerful graphics card can produce a higher fidelity image by anti-aliasing, which removes the stair-step jaggies in all 3D games, also allowing smooth playing at HD resolutions.

PC games have always paved the way in electronic interactive entertainment, and computer hardware has been ever advancing in supporting game development.  The direction mainstream hit games have gone in is "more realism" whether the game has new graphic effects, or new kinds of interactivity with the game world, or whether it's scripted by a professional writer.  By buying a weaker computer or trying to upgrade a cheap computer, you're compromising the realism.  That's why PC gamers are so fanatic about having a nice computer.  With higher fidelity 3D accelerated graphics and exciting surround sound, The top PC action games really deserve to be enjoyed on a higher performance KillaRad computer.

Upgradeability

We offer a variety of models for various budgets with different options on upgradeability.  If you really got into a series of games and wanted to experience the latest title with new, more realistic effects, you could choose to upgrade some of the components inside your KillaRad PC to get a comparably better experience.  For example there is talk of DirectX 11 3D graphics effects being enabled some day by newer GPU's.  Upgradability is standard with our PCs, unlike off-the-shelf PC's which are typically not designed to be upgraded.  By selling non-upgradeable PC's or PC's with limited upgradability, the major PC companies are protecting their business, but in many cases paying a lower price limits what you'll be able to do with a major brand computer.

In conclusion, choosing a gaming PC company to go with can be tricky, but armed with knowledge of the latest CPU models, and knowing how to read a GPU model, you're prepared to shop prices, compare specs, and make the right choices.  At KillaRad we select the best balances of CPU and GPU, combined with upgradeability, and the reliability that you expect to pay for.

Other companies often fake you out by listing the maximum specs one of their systems can be configured with, next to the minimum starting price.  Unlike other companies that start their systems at the bottom and get you to pay more for a better graphics card and a better GPU, KillaRad's PC's are price optimized.  They often include things other companies charge extra for, like a silent heatpipe CPU cooler, a full year of anti-virus protection and a surge protector.  When you line up the specs, a KillaRad PC can save you from $100 to $800 or more on comparable systems from other gaming PC companies.