• Performance Gaming Upgrades
• Home Entertainment Upgrades

Performance Gaming Upgrades

Video Card

The standard model comes with an NVIDIA GTS 250 video card. This is an excellent card for gaming and will run most games, like Call of Duty 4 and Oblivion/Fallout 3, at 60+ frames per second, even at full 1920x1200 resolution on high settings. Crysis runs in the 30fps range on high settings and 1650x1050 resolution. This card is power-efficient and is manufactured with the new 55nm process.

For even more graphics power you may upgrade to the NVIDIA GTX 285--the most powerful graphics chip currently available. It offers approximately a 30%-50% performance increase in most current games over the GTS 250, and will keep that high, fluid performance with upcoming titles. This is our first recommended performance upgrade, more important than the processor. (Note: we are not yet offering the GTX285 because the price premium for this newly-released card does not justify the performance. Though, if you really want it, just contact us and we will gladly make the arrangement.)

Both cards are good at handling Blu-ray video.

Read more about why we chose NVIDIA cards over AMD's 4850 and 4870.

Processor

The standard choice is the economical Intel Core 2 E7400 Dual Core Processor. We have chosen this processor for its exceptional value and great overclocking ability. In fact, we recommend this over the quad core if you're looking for the budget gaming solution. In the future, most games may use all four cores but by then better processors will be available. For now, only a handful of games will use two cores and even less use four. A few that use four cores are Far Cry 2, Supreme Commander, and GTA4.

If you wish to upgrade you can choose the Intel Core 2 E8500 Dual Core or Q9550 Quad Core Processor. It is a great choice for future titles or if you use Photoshop, video encoding, 3D software like Maya, or massive multi-tasking. The Q9550 cannot be overclocked as high as the E7400, but it is still a very good overclocker and games like Far Cry 2 and Supreme Commander will perform much better. The E8500 is for those who want the fastest game performance now, as this chip can go up to 4.2 Ghz.

Blu-ray Drive

Even if you're not going to watch Blu-ray movies on your computer, it is the standard of the future, and is a highly recommended upgrade. The LG Blu-ray drive reads HD-DVDs and burns DVDs as well, so if you already have HD-DVD movies you can watch them on your PC! The standard optical drive is a 20X Samsung DVD±R drive. The Blu-ray drive reads at 6X speed, and burns DVDs at 16X speed.

Storage

The options for storage are Seagate 500GB, Western Digital 750GB, and Seagate 1 TB hard drives. We recommend a 1TB drive if you will be storing a lot of movies/TV shows on your computer.

Other Components

• Case - The Antec P180 is arguably the best all-around case on the market. Quiet, cool, and roomy: a great investment that you can keep for many years as you upgrade your system in the future.
• Memory - Fast OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 Dual Channel Memory
• Power Supply - A Corsair cx400W 80 PLUS Certified Power Supply with the 250 GTS video card, and a RAIDMAX HYBRID 730W Modular Power Supply with the GTX285 video card. Both are great power supplies and are essential for a stable and upgradeable system.
• Motherboard - An ASRock P45TS-R motherboard comes with the E7400, and a GIGABYTE EP45-UD3R motherboard comes with the Q9550.
• Operating System - Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit, with a free Windows 7 upgrade.
• CPU Cooler - An essential part to overclocking, the XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 CPU Heatsink is one of the best available. It is affixed with Arctic Silver compound.

Home Entertainment Upgrades

Processor

The standard processor is the Intel Core 2 Q8400 Quad Core Processor, and is an ideal choice for a home entertainment platform. For a slightly faster options, you can upgrade to an Intel Q9550 Quad Core Processor.

Blu-ray Drive

Even if you're not going to watch Blu-ray movies on your computer, it is the standard of the future, and is a highly recommended upgrade. The LG Blu-ray drive reads HD-DVDs and burns DVDs as well, so if you already have HD-DVD movies you can watch them on your PC! The standard optical drive is a 22X Samsung DVD±R drive. The Blu-ray drive reads at 6X speed, and burns DVDs at 16X speed.

Storage

The options for storage are a performance 500GB, 750GB, and 1 TB hard drives. We recommend a 1TB drive if you will be storing a lot of movies/TV shows on your computer.

Overclock Preference

We offer four levels of overclocking: none, low, medium, and high. Overclocking a processor at a high enough level will decrease its lifespan. A low setting of overclock is very safe and poses no risk to these processors. and a medium setting is the default for this system. Those who wish to have a high level of overclock will have amazing performance but it may shorten the processor's lifespan to about three years.

When you place your order, we will contact you and help you determine the best overclock setting for your needs.

Other Components

• Case - The Antec Sonata III 500 is an award-winning case designed for quiet operation. It comes with an efficient Antec 500W 80 PLUS Certified power supply and is a good investment that you can keep for many years as you upgrade your system in the future.
• Video Card - This system comes with an NVIDIA 9500GT video card, which is suited well for handling Blu-ray movies and some family 3D titles like Spore.
• Memory - Fast OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 Dual Channel Memory
• Motherboard - The durable, award-winning GIGABYTE EP45-UD3R motherboard comes with both processors.
• Operating System - Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit.
• CPU Cooler - An essential part to overclocking, the XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 CPU Heatsink is one of the best available. It is affixed with Arctic Silver compound.