Gaming PC

For some reason, I woke up yesterday with this very strange urge to research computer parts. So far I've looked at processors, motherboards and cases. Glenn and I have been talking about building a gaming computer, and I always like having another machine around, so I decided to look at some parts today.

I've decided on two processors that are very similar in price. One is a dual-core at 3.16GHz, and the other is a quad-core at 2.5GHz.

• Q9300 Quad-Core.
• E8500 Dual-Core.

The two processors listed here are both 45nm processors that require some of Intel's latest chipsets. There are three motherboards that I really like, one based on the G35 chipset, one based on the P35 chipset, and the other based on the X38 chipset.

• DG35EC motherboard.
• DP35DPM motherboard.
• DX38BT motherboard.

My favorite motherboard is the DG35EC. It's got a nice complement of ports, and if I were building the machine purely for Vista use, the board's Intel GMA X3500 graphics would serve great -- and it's capable of HD video playback, at up to 1080p. The other two boards don't have graphics, which makes them quite suitable for what I'd originally intended to use the system for, which is as a gaming computer.

So far, I've pretty much decided on one enclosure, the Antec 300. It looks like a great enclosure, the power supply is at the bottom which is for whatever reason my favorite orientation, it can hold an ATX board, and there are plenty of . The big important part about this particular enclosure though, is the fact that it's not ugly. After looking at a lot of mid towers, I've got to say that I think the Antec Three Hundred is the one I'd probably be able to live with.

So far I'm happy with the components I've looked at and their prices. I'm somewhat terrified of the prices for the rest of the components. I'm not sure quite yet if I'm going to go through with building this machine -- the iMac is a pretty great computer as it is, and any of the games I'd like to play run great on it.

Over the next few weeks, I'll probably look at other parts and see what's out there, but ultimately I don't think I'll be building a new computer this summer, but if I do, it'll be later on in the summer.