v1rt Gaming Computers {Godly Overclocked elite custom rigs} Overclocking your build to the last stable mhz of its cpu and cooling system.

Introduction to Water Cooling by Aki H.

Liquid cooling is basically what the name says: you're cooling your components with a liquid. How? Well, here's the simplest summary possible: you have tubes going all around inside your computer case, attached to your computer components by water blocks, and giving your components more cooling power than air-cooling.

The advantages of having a water-cooling system is that your components are cooled extremely well. Depending on which water blocks you use, the type of coolant, and number of components you need to cool, water cooling can cool your components better than the standard air-cooling setup. This means that you won't need to worry about over-working your GPU in graphics-intensive games, over-heating your CPU by overclocking too much, or letting your motherboard chipset melt due to the chipset cooler's malfunction. More cooling power also means more overclocking. This means that with more cooling power, you can toy around with your components more than a standard air-cooling setup. You can push your components all the way to the edge.

A Controversial Issue: Intel vs. AMD by Aki H.

As many of you know, Intel seems to be always one step ahead of AMD when it comes to CPU's. Everyone says "Intel kicks AMD's _____(fill in your word here)". But is this really true?

Only a couple of years ago, AMD was kicking Intel's butt with their own, new dual core processor, the Athlon X2's. They were one step ahead of Intel at that time when Intel was still on the Pentium series, and everyone had an AMD CPU. AMD was in, and Intel seemed to be slipping away.

What you need to know in order to have a silent computer. by Chris Conley

For the performance computer enthusiast, having a powerful machine usually means having equally powerful cooling to offset the amount of heat high-end hardware puts out. This means having a good case with a few fans for airflow, a good CPU heatsink assembly, and sometimes a third-party GPU cooler if you're overclocking. The downside to all this? Noise. For some people noise isn't a factor, mainly because they've lived with it for so long that they're used to it. But there are those who decide to make the transition from a noisy high-performance machine to one that is whisper-silent. This guide will serve to give you insight into the quiet-computing aspect of the PC industry.

In order to understand the noise your case makes, we have to understand the tradeoff between noise and cooling efficiency. Typically, the more efficient your cooling, the louder your system will be. Noise is measured in decibels;

10 quick and easy ways to speed up your computer! by James Scholes

Many people are interested in making the most of their hardware. So here are 10 simple tips on how to make your Windows XP computer run faster without having to purchase additional hardware.

1. Defrag Disk to Speed Up Access to Data

Advantages and Disadvantages Associated With Overclocking by Billy Zype

Before you start overclocking your computer, you'll want to make sure that you understand the good and the bad that can come out of this process. This information shouldn't be viewed as a deterrent, but rather a clarification of the pros and cons associated with overclocking your computer.

Disadvantages of Overclocking:

Overclocking Made Easy by Sandra Prior

Just imagine if the only difference between the two liter sports saloon and the 1.4 family hatchback was the badge on the back. Imagine a car manufacturer that fitted all its cars with the same engine but detuned those in the budget models to protect the price premiums at the top of the range. Imagine if the red line limit on the rev counter was so conservatively marked that you could comfortably exceed it by 50 per cent without damaging the engine.

It sounds implausible, but read ‘Intel’ for ‘car manufacturer’ and we’ve pretty much described the state of the processor industry for the last decade. For years now, power users have known how to squeeze more performance from their processors for free, by pushing them to their true limits instead of those artificially set by the chip makers. This black art is known as overclocking and if you ever wondered what it is all about, this may be your last chance to find out before Intel plugs the loophole forever.

Ultimate Buyer's Guide: Desktop Memory by Aki H.

Picking memory now a days is quite easy because DDR2 800 RAM is generally everyone's favorite. However, people are also biased in that that's the ONLY RAM they recommend because other people tell them that other RAM, like DDR2 1066, isn't as cost effective. Well, there are actually certain situations where RAM other than DDR2 800 is more cost effective.

First is the price of the RAM. Now-a-days, a lot of the DDR2 800 desktop RAM is on large rebates, typically anywhere from 10 dollars to 30 dollars. DDR2 800 is usually sold around $70 to $80, and considering that you're getting 2GB of RAM for $40 to $50 after rebate, this is an awesome deal. However, this isn't the case only for DDR2 800. RAM is becoming so cheap and abundant today that a lot of DDR2 1066 modules are also getting very very low in price, some coming down to the price level of DDR2 800 memory sets. In this case, grab the DDR2 1066 RAM: it's clocked faster, and most likely, you will be able to overclock more if you want to.

How Can Custom Gaming Computers Meet your Needs? by Jordan Hall

Pre-made computer gaming systems are a dime a dozen; walk into your local Best Buy or Circuit City, and you're likely to see dozens of computer configuration options ready to be rung up and carried out the front door. Many of these assembly line computers carry impressive specifications, including the latest processors and video card combinations. However, at a certain point these big box computers show their limitations. They generally carry with them proprietary BIOS systems that are difficult or impossible to alter or update, making it difficult to make your gaming system compatible with the latest generations of processors and video cards. Additionally, the prefabricated computer options generally give you only one option in terms of hardware configuration. If you prefer to drop the multi-card reader, you are responsible for removing it yourself. More pressingly, if you desire to run two nVidia graphics cards simultaneously in an SLI configuration, you may not be able to; not every motherboard can support SLI, and there is no guarantee that the computer you just left Wal-Mart with will allow you the freedom to upgrade at your discretion. For serious gamers, increased configuration flexibility is a must. No two gamers are alike, after all, and each particular gaming predilection carries with it a necessary hardware solution.

Custom Gaming Computers: Why Build Your Own? by Julien David

If you plan on owning a powerful gaming computer to play the latest games on, there's really only one way to go about it. Build your own.

Building your own custom gaming computer has many advantages over buying a complete, ready-built PC. It's also very easy to do, you don't need to be a computer whizz at all to build a computer.

All it involves is buying all your computer components separately, and putting them together with basic tools. The components you choose will be carefully selected according to performance and price, so you get the most bang for your buck.