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Building the Ultimate Gaming System VIby Kirk, 2007-06-18 |
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The first thing you need to know about building a small PC (now referred to as a SFF PC- Small Form Factor) is that SFF PCs are like the 3 million part puzzles in the back of toy stores- only the hardcore need apply. Building a SFF PC is like trying to take a car and fit it into a Jetsons-like briefcase: it requires a kind of experience and finesse that will no doubt leave you frustrated, sweaty, and missing half the skin on your knuckles.
SFF PCs are a pain in the rear mainly because of the free space, but that also plays to an advantage. For one thing, SFF PCs have the advantage of being small and compact, allowing you to fit them in spaces (such as drawers and cabinets) that would normally be definitely be no-nos for fully sized PCs. As well, while SFF PCs require extensive heat management (as things can get hot quickly), you can also do some clever things in them that make them cooler than bigger PCs- the lack of “dead air” space allows you to keep air flowing through them at a nice pace, without worrying about too much dust or dirt collecting where it can do the most damage. So, with that being said, I decided first to run through and decide my absolute requirements for my office PC. Obviously, being as I work at Gametrash, among other things, I needed something that would be able to do some powerful gaming- but not cost me too damn much money, as now I obviously don't have the energy or balls to spend upwards of $6,000 for parts I know will go old in a year. Building a PC with perfectly compatible parts always is superior to hyper-upgrading one specific part- because you avoid bottlenecking and overheating. But I digress- let's get to the specifications. First off, I wanted a PC to be as compact as possible. I'm one of those organization freaks, believe it or not- my desktop, both virtual and real, must be clean and free of clutter. Having a behemoth PC sitting on my desk is not the way to do this whatsoever, so naturally the answer is to make something small- but not too small. I wanted something about the size of a small stereo reciever- enough to be cooled properly, but small enough where I could have enough space to breathe (and finally see over my desk for once). Secondly, I wanted it to double as my media center. My office is also equipped with a reasonably sized tube TV- about 40”. As I've always been a big proponent of downloading foreign TV shows, I wanted an option to allow me to watch TV on my PC, as well as my PC on my TV. This requires two things- a Video Out video card (not a big deal, most mid-to-high-end cards have these) and a HDTV tuner. Quite a bill already. Thirdly, I was going to target build this thing with one game in mind: The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Not like I love the thing to death by any means: but when you can run that game (and all of the particle effects with it), you can run anything. Thus, the answer is to target the system to run it full screen 1600x1200, cranked up to maximum quality. We can already presume this sucker is going to run off. Fourth and finally, I wanted this to be QUIET. After dealing with my Alienware for about two years (and the subsequent assload of noise it made), I want to be able to listen to my music in peace and quiet, and actually be able to hear the birds chirping outside again. As this will act as my media center, it goes without saying that it will need to be quiet anyway. So, what parts will I choose? Time to do one of my old fashioned BUGS listings... again.
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