Game Central » Ryan

What Windows 7 Means for Gamers

Ryan Merck — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:48:39 +0000

Being a big-time PC enthusiast, I’ve been using the release candidate and beta versions of Windows 7 for about a year. With the official release of the operating system now at hand, it’s time to describe to the PC gamers of the world what it truly means to them. The problem is, it’s been so long since I’ve used XP or Vista on a daily basis, that it’s hard for me to relate. As an avid Windows 7 user, it would be impossible for me to remain unbiased. So let me just get it out there: Windows 7 is the best operating system ever created for a PC gamer. As far as I’m concerned, this review could end right now. Most people reading this will already have their own established opinions on XP, Vista, 7, various Linux flavors, or even OS X. The truth is, some people simply fear change, and will do their best to hold on to the familiar. I’m not going to attempt to sway anyone who doesn’t want to jump on the 7 bandwagon. No unsubstantiated OS bashing will occur. All that follows is the explanation of why I gladly paid to upgrade my PC to Microsoft’s newest operating system.

As mentioned, I’m a little out of touch with XP (only one out of five PC’s I use regularly has XP, the rest are various pre-release versions of Windows 7). Going back to XP on my current rig was no picnic; the drivers were harder to find, I was limited to 3.25 GB of RAM, and I had to transfer networking drivers on a USB drive from another computer. Once I had the drivers ready, and my spare drive attached, I waited for over an hour while the OS installed. Even though I worked with a slipstreamed service pack 3, I waited yet another hour while the updates commenced. On Win 7, the installation peaked at a maximum of 45 minutes on my main PC, and less than an hour on my Netbook equivalent. The only drivers I needed were for my GPU and X-Fi sound card, and both work fine before installing them. Only once during the setup of Windows 7 did I need to dig for a driver. The SoundMAX sound card on my circa 2004 laptop refused to cooperate, and the OS simply would not find the drivers automatically. However, after downloading and installing the XP drivers from the laptop manufacturer, all was remedied.

Gaming on Windows 7 is, in truth, not all that different than gaming on XP. The main difference is that XP is forever limited to DirectX 9, while Win7 sports DirectX 11. Most games work fine with the paltry 3.25 GB of RAM, assuming you make sure to close any heavy hitting applications prior to playing. In real world gameplay, not counting differences in DirectX effects, there is no significant difference in the framerates between XP and 7. With and without a frame counter to confirm my beliefs, every game I fired up seemed to run smoothly and remain completely playable. Some games run faster in DX9 mode, and therefore project the illusion of exclusive XP speediness if your hardware can’t keep up with the DX10 effects on Win 7.

So what makes Windows 7 better for a gamer? Simple: 3D applications and their integration with the system. The Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which handles the way windows are rendered on-screen, provides a new layer between the game and the operating system. Nearly all games in Windows 7 act like other applications. Pressing ALT-Tab while in a game on XP will often lead to slow downs and instability. While this could be related to the limited memory available, it’s also heavily related to the way DirectX and game rendering are integrated into the OS. Leaving a game minimized and starting up another was all but impossible in XP, and functioned with only the most basic of titles. In Windows 7, I can easily run Left 4 Dead minimized and fire up The Sims 3. The fact that I can leave a potential game running in the background and then go about the rest of my day, and then later switch back to the game instantly, is a nuance that’s sorely missing from XP. While this usage does, in large part, depend on the way the particular game has implemented Direct X, enough games are being developed with WPF in mind that it’s completely viable.

Initially, I quested to find a game that wouldn’t work on Win 7. Fortunately, this quest has failed. I caught a glimmer of masochistic hope when some web searching suggested that Spore would fail on Win 7 64-bit. However, it did run. Just fine, in fact. I then attempted some classic games. I thought I’d snagged another culprit in the form of the classic racing game Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed. At first, it indeed refused to launch. Then I tried the simple fix of changing the compatibility mode, and still… nothing. But when I set the game shortcut to XP compatibility mode; lo and behold- success. Several hours later, I gave up. There simply wasn’t a game I could find that didn’t work on Windows 7.

If you read the multitude of reviews out there, they’ll most likely tell you that Windows 7 will be faster and more reliable. They’ll say that the system feels more responsive and may even boot faster. And the truth is, well- that it is true! The OS will attempt to make use of as much RAM as you have all the time. While the reliable and faster boot times are accurate, for most people, these are a non-issue. If any XP or newer PC takes more than 2 minutes to boot, you’ve got some serious troubles in 3rd party software, or your OS itself has quirks that need to be resolved. Anything less than 2 minutes is somewhat splitting hairs. Sleep mode in Win 7 is lightyears ahead of XP in terms of both wake time and reliability. I’ve had one (yes, only one) issue where the system would not resume from sleep in Windows 7. And that was a hiccup on a very early build on my home theater PC, and it was most likely related to the TV tuners installed on that system.

After using the OS for 12 months solid, I can say that I’ll never revert any PC I utilize back to Vista or XP. Windows 7 simply does not limit my computing in the ways that XP and Vista now seem to. Personally, I don’t want my computing experience to feel like it’s stuck in the past. I suspect many of you will agree.

How to: Create, Edit, and Encode Game Videos

Ryan Merck — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:00:50 +0000

So you want to create awesome gameplay videos for free? Well, you have your work cut out for you. If all you want to do it combine or encode a few nice clips you captured with Fraps, it shouldn’t be too hard. If you are interested in creating a finely edited HD quality video, it can be done, but will prove much more difficult.

This installment in Game Central’s how-to series will take you from capturing, to editing, to encoding, and finally uploading. The only stipulation is that the tools used are entirely FREE. While the actual game footage can be captured easily for free, it is not so easy to find free video editing software.

Capturing

To capture game video, you need a tool like Fraps or Xfire. Alternatively, WeGame is a semi-popular new service that supposedly captures, encodes, and uploads videos in high definition. Unfortunately, their client would not run on my PC running 64-bit Vista or 64-bit Win7. Additional, their support for this issue leaves something to be desired. Until it works on my machine, I cannot review it, let alone recommend it. That said, Fraps and Xfire are both great options. Although I only started using it recently, I much prefer Xfire, if the game you are using supports it. Personally, I did not run into any games that had trouble allowing me to capture video with Xfire. There are two main benefits. First, there is no capture length limitation in the Xfire. Fraps’ free version has a 30 second time limit. Second, the Xfire interface displays the length and size of the video at the top of the screen while capturing; while this isn’t strictly necessary, it is nice to see. Another Xfire bonus is the option to quickly encode and upload a video right from the application. You don’t get the option to edit or have much control over the video encoding options, but it is fast and easy.

To capture video, just download either program. Once the application is installed (with Xfire you do have to create an Xfire account), launch them and check out the Options screen. Both applications have very similar options. The important things to change are the destination folder, the frame rate, and the capture size. The best results are to be had when you record to a secondary hard drive, if possible, and at 30 frames per second.

Similar capture options makes switching between Fraps and Xfire simple.

For general use, half-resolution usually has less impact on game performance. With a mid-range to high-end rig, you should be able to capture and maintain 30 frames per second from any game where you normally get at least 60 fps. These tools capture uncompressed AVI video files, so the filesize will get large in a hurry. Depending on resolution figure, it is usually close to two minutes of video per gigabyte. If you plan on creating an HD video for YouTube upload, you will want to change your game resolution to 1280×720 and capture at full resolution for the best quality. Because this is the resolution you will encode and upload at for YouTube HD, you should capture at that resolution or higher for the source material. However, running at higher resolutions generally slows things down.

Now that you know all the settings, that just leaves getting the right content. Of course you can just press the “Start Recording” shortcut key in game and hope you get something good, but my favorite method is to record a demo, or save a replay, and then record the video after the fact. With this method, you can often utilize the in game camera controls more effectively, and the reduced CPU load when playing back a replay or demo file will make for a smoother frame rate for your capture. For this article, I utilized the demo recording and playback capabilities of the Source engine in Left4Dead.

Working with a recorded demo file is easier than trying to capture video all the time.

Editing

Free video editing tools are the clear weak link in this chain. I have yet to find a good editing tool that is free and capable of creating HD quality content. If all you want to do is splice together several clips from a number of different videos, you can do that fairly easily (this will be addressed in the Encoding section). If you want to use a timeline based user interface to put together a more professional video with titles and transitions, you may be disappointed with the free tools that are out there.

Windows Movie Maker is the first option people generally look to when they think of free video editors on Windows. While it does have some rudimentary features, the future of that application looks bleak. I am currently running on Windows 7, and the Windows Live Essentials version of Movie Maker is still in beta; although things will without a doubt change before the final release, the software is quite pathetic in its current form. You can only output in WMV format and only at resolutions of 640×480 or 320×240. So if you are on Windows 7, Movie Maker is out. For Vista it is an option, but the free editing tool I recommend is Pinnacle Video Spin. The software is easy to use, and well featured. There are a wide variety of output options, and it allows you to output at resolutions of up to 800×448 for 16:9 aspect ratio content. While this resolution is clearly not desireable for creating YouTube HD content, it is not terrible.

The differences between 1280×720 source and 800×488 scaled up to 720p are quite obvious.

The great thing about Video Spin is the interface. The basic timeline layout allows you to mix scenes together easily, and add title overlays to your video. The title creator is amazingly full featured for a free software, and it includes the most frequently used video transitions. Additionally, it is easy to add additional audio tracks with sound effects, many of which are included with the software, and soundtracks. This is the software to use if you want to create more of a production, rather than just game footage, for free.

The Video Spin timeline interface and easy to use title editor make it worth the low resolution if you want to produce a cool looking movie.

One additional note on Video Spin, if you can, work with videos that are already at the resolution you want to output. Either resize videos before you edit (more on this later) or capture at 800×448 (to do this, the game you capture from will need to support custom defined resolutions, most do). The resizing algorithm used by VideoSpin induces noticeable artifacts that looks a bit like interlacing. The program has the option to do progressive output, but only when encoding as an h.264 MPEG-4 (MP4). A note on file format and codecs; h.264 is the compression-decrompression (codec), and MPEG-4 is the file wrapper, or file type.

When you are through editing, you need to output your file. If you are using VideoSpin, or any other application that cannot output a 1280×720 MP4 file, you should output as an uncompressed AVI. This will allow the compressing encoder to have the most data to work with. If you encode multiple times with an encoder that produces compressed output (h.264 MP4 for example), the quality will degrade with every recode.

Encoding

While there are many free tools out there for encoding video, there are only a few that are easy to use specifically for game footage. Fraps, in particular, is difficult to deal with. Many video encoding applications do not work nicely with its proprietary codec. For this and several other reason, I am recommending MediaCoder as the free tool of choice for encoding. MediaCoder provides an easy to understand UI, and a useful Setup Wizard. It also has the ability to do some rough editing; it is possible (but not all together easy) to cut out unwanted portions of videos and then patch multiple clips together.

First, lets get through the basics. Download MediaCoder, and install it (there is also an add-on for 64-bit operating systems). When you first run, a website will launch (loaded with ads) to help you configure. Within all those banner ads (they have to pay the bills somehow) is actually a useful setup tool. Once in the setup wizard, it will first ask you what mode you prefer, Normal or Advanced, I chose normal.

For the rest of the setup, follow these choices if you want to encode for YouTube HD:
2: Audio and Video mode;
3: a) Yes, b) 1280×720;
4: Yes, 30fps;
5: h.264;
6: High Profile;
7: Bitrate-based, 2Mbps;
8: mp4;
9: AAC, quality mode, higher quality;
10: Audio Sample Rate, no;
11: Audio Channel-Yes, Stereo.

That may seem complicated, but if you read it while going through the setup wizard it will make sense. These settings can be changed, but they will get you started. The assisted setup is nice, because it covers all the essentials, and without it, it is easy to forget something when using a new application for the first time. Once you close the Setup Wizard, MediaCoder will appear. Once it does, you can add you edited file or raw game video file, confirm that the destination folder is correct, and just hit go.

Once you set the options, it is as simple as adding a file and clicking start.

Trimming clips – In MediaCoder, it is possible to trim and combine multiple clips, but it requires some patience. I have found that it is much easier to use a separate application, the well known VirtualDub. Why not use VirtualDub for the transcoding also? Well, you can, but with MediaCoder the x264 codec is built in, and the guided Setup Wizard helps you choose the right resolution and framerate for YouTube HD. Additionally, MediaCoder encodes faster. To edit in VirtualDub is quite easy. You mark in and out points and then click Edit and Cut. You can append other clips, and cut out whatever you don’t want. Then just make sure the Audio and Video are set to “Stream Copy” and choose “Save As AVI” from the file menu. This will not recode any video or audio, it just trims off the portions of the clip you do not want. Now just open the file you saved in MediaCoder and then hit the Start button.

Resizing clips – If you are looking to put together the finest quality you can with VideoSpin as your editing tool, you may want to resize your clips before editing to avoid unnecessary quality drop because of poor resizing algorithms. Simply use MediaCoder in it’s stream copy mode and choose the resolution manually (again, 800×448 is the maximum 16:9 ratio that VideoSpin will output). This is an extra step that is really not necessary unless you are looking to squeeze every possible bit of quality from VideoSpin.

Adding titles – If HD output is a must, and you still want title screens, hope is not lost. You can add images to VirtualDub and MediaCoder. VirtualDub’s interface makes this task easier, put it takes some work to get it right. Just choose add video, but select any PNG file you previously created with the title on it. Virtual Dub will add this as a single frame, you need to then copy and paste it as many times as needed to create the length you desire. Remember, you are generally using 30 frames per second. This is a tedious task, and certainly one that is generally not worth doing unless you are determined not to pay anything for your high-def video production needs.

Uploading

If you encode a video with MediaCoder using the above settings, your output will be about 15-20 MB per minute of video. the YouTube maximum is 10 minutes, so figure on a 200 MB upload for that length. This isn’t exactly tiny, but remember this is HD resolution. A one megabit upload is a pretty standard highspeed cable connection these days, and on that 200 MB will take around 25 minutes to upload. Again, this is assuming a 10 minute long movie.

The Easy Way

If you decide to give Xfire a try, they have a very simple way to get game footage online quickly. When you capture in game, and then exit or ‘alt-tab’ back to your desktop, the application will prompt you to tell you that you recorded a video. You can then right click any “Source Video” on the Video tab and choose upload. The application will transcode the video and upload it to your Xfire page, which you can access by double clicking any video listed under “Remote Videos” on the Xfire window. While this will be no where near the quality of the video on YouTube HD, it is a very fast, and simple solution. This is by far the easiest way to get game footage up on the web for all to see.

Quick and dirty

If you are interested in getting a clip up onto YouTube in HD quickly, and with minimal editing, use only Fraps or Xfire with MediaCoder to compress. You can trim the captured clip with MediaCoder using the “Time” tab, and output it using the settings we selected previously. MediaCoder provides a very high-quality output and transcodes very quickly.

Sample videos

The following are two samples. They were both generated from the same 1280×720 source videos captured with the free edition of Fraps. The first was edited in Video Spin, where titles and transition effects were added. The second was edited to contain the same clips in MediaCoder, but there are no titles or transitions. The Video Spin file was saved as uncompressed AVI at 800×448 resolution (again to maintain the 16:9 aspect ratio) and then upscaled to 720p (1280×720, the resolution required for YouTube HD) with MediaCoder. Upscaling to 720p does not add any quality, it just allows you to take advantage of YouTube HD’s high bitrate.

Conclusion

The truth is, creating a nicely edited high definition video is hard to do for free. The real problem is that there just are not any great free tools I have found that can add slick effects, transitions, soundtracks, and title overlays and output with HD quality. VideoSpin is excellent, but its output quality leaves a lot to be desired. Another great tool, which has a free version and utilizes GPU acceleration; it is called LoiLoScope. The free version is limited to low resolution output to YouTube only, but the interface is very cool. Because it is GPU accelerated, it is the most slick video editing tool I have ever used. You really have to try it to get the experience. The full version is around $70, so it is on the low cost side of video editing solutions. One additional low-priced solution is Sony Vegas, which can usually be found for under $100 on Amazon.com. Sony Vegas will allow you to edit and add titles, and then output with full resolution as an MP4, or even as an uncompressed AVI to be transcoded with MediaCoder if you desire (the output quality from Vegas is inferior to MediaCoder at 2 Mbps). With free tools it is possible and even easy to get game footage onto YouTube in glorious HD, but unless you can settle for DVD resolution, it is quite difficult to create a nicely edited high-def film with slick transitions and fancy title overlays.

How to: Build a sub-$500 Gaming PC

Ryan Merck — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:40:33 +0000

PC gaming is often called out for having a very high barrier to entry. Although the games are cheaper, the hardware is more expensive. The goal of this build guide is to create a $500 PC that will play current generation games well at HD resolutions. This build will perform best on resolutions of 1680×1050 or below (1280×1024, 1280×720), but it should be passable at higher resolutions for many games. Unfortunately, to avoid cutting too many corners and keep the price down, I had to cheat in two different ways. One, this build does not include the cost of an operating system. Although that may seem crazy, with the wide spread availability of Windows 7 beta, and the likely scenario that most people already have a PC that runs Windows XP that they are upgrading from, it is safe for me to assume that you have access to an operating system. Second, mail-in rebates are factored in to get the cost below $500. Newegg was used for all prices (as of April 10, 2009), so cheaper versions of the same or similar parts may be found elsewhere. Newegg was chosen because we have simply found that they are the easiest place to deal with when buying parts for a new system. If you do some digging around, the same configuration can most likely be found for less than $500 without any mail-in rebates.

Although it was not on par with the performance of the Core 2 platform, AMD’s Phenom series has become an excellent bargain. Because modern games are incredibly graphics card dependent, it is easy to get good performance from a gaming PC with a less than top of the line processor. This system will perform incredibly well for everyday tasks, thanks to a quad core processor, 4GB of memory, and a very fast hard drive. Read on to see what powers this $500 gaming rig.

Motherboard:
Foxconn A7GM-S
Price: $69.99

Foxconn has a legendary reputation for reliability. The company is the OEM for many big name brands, and has had great success with their own brand of motherboards and other hardware. Foxconn has reliable hardware and good support for BIOS updates when needed. Onboard audio, video, and network controllers make this a very feature-complete board. The fact that it is a MicroATX board does limit the number of expansion slots, but this should not be a factor for folks looking to build a $500 PC. The onboard video can be configured to take over in low-demand situations to reduce power consumption when certain AMD based dedicated graphics cards are in use. Finally, the board includes both SATA and PATA connectors, and has PCI and PCI-e add-on card slots.

Processor (CPU)
AMD Phenom X4 9600
Price: $94.99

At under $100, it is hard to choose anything else to build a budget PC around today. This quad core processor will perform general computing tasks with ease, and is robust enough to handle todays modern PC games. The chip clocks in at 2.3GHZ stock, but can be overclocked to gain extra performance if needed. Combined with the graphics card in this build, this CPU will perform very well in games at its stock settings. Overclocking will most likely only show significant results in benchmarks, and not in general use. The processor has additional power saving technology to add to this build; it can shut down individual cores to reduce the power draw if the tasks at hand do not require the extra computing muscle.

Video Card (GPU)
MSI Radeon HD 4850 512MB – R4850-512M OC
Price: $104.99 after $30 mail-in rebate

The graphics card is the most expensive component in this budget gaming build, and it should be. Modern games are dependent on the graphics card much more than the processor. Although extra processor speed will help increase gaming performance, the gains are not nearly as apparent as those from a video card upgrade. The Radeon 4850 is an excellent value. The card is HDCP compliant and includes an HDMI adapter if you plan to connect this PC to your television. Additionally, the card has a more robust dual slot cooler to keep the temperatures down on a card whose single slot cooler equipped siblings run notoriously hot. This MSI version comes factory overclocked to provide optimal in game performance. With the current $30 rebate from Newegg, this card will give you great bang for your buck.

Memory (RAM)
OCZ 4GB DDR2-1066(2 x 2GB) Model OCZ2G10664GK
Price: $44.99

Four gigabytes of memory will help any gaming system these days. For just shy of $50, this 4GB kit is a little more expensive than other DDR2 memory, but the 1066MHz effective speed will help boost overall system performance, and make overclocking easier. Additionally, the reliability of OCZ memory will keep the system screaming along for years. Remember, to take advantage of the full 4GB of memory, you will need a 64-bit operating system. Right now, the pre-release versions of Windows 7 64-bit are amazingly stable. If you did not get the Beta when it was available in January, don’t fret. It is expected that Microsoft will do another publicly available pre-release “release” soon.

Power Supply (PSU)
Corsair CMPSU-550VX 550 Watts
Price: $59.99 after $30 mail-in rebate

Having so much positive personal experience with Corsair PSU’s, it is impossible for me to recommend anything else for the budget-conscious buyer. This 550 watt unit will be more than sufficient for this configuration, and should provide room for future upgrades or expansion. The unit is cooled by a single fan, which should keep it quiet, and it has plenty of connectors for all the add-on devices you could desire.

Case
CoolerMaster Elite 332 ATX Mid tower RC-332-KKN1-GP
Price: $39.99

The case is often a matter of personal preference, but I see too many budget build guides recommending $60, $80, even $100 dollar cases. This CoolerMaster case is simple and well designed. It has tool-less drive and expansion card mounting, along with great airflow from front and rear 120mm fans. I have used the older version of this case (Elite 330) for close to 3 years, and have been perfectly happy. Another great option if size is of any concern is the $40 CoolerMaster Elite 360. It is one of the smallest cases that accepts full size ATX motherboards and power supplies. CoolerMaster continues to make the highest quality low cost computer cases on the market.

Hard Drive (HDD)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS
Price: $59.99

This 500GB 7200RPM SATA-3.0Gb/s, hard drive is one of the first to offer 500GB per platter. With just one platter (the spinning disk inside) in the drive, it will run cool and quiet and consume less power. The increased density from a 500GB platter means the data will travel past the read and write heads at a faster linear velocity; this will provide faster transfer speed and shorter access times, especially on the out tracks of the disk. Partition the disk so that your operating system (OS) and Programs are on the first half, while your documents and other files (music, movies, images) are on the slower second half. This will speed up the OS and application loading performance greatly.

Optical Drive (ODD)
Samsung 22X DVD±R Burner w/ LightScribe
Model SH-S223Q
Price: $24.99

Often, the optical drive is overlooked, with people choosing the cheapest one, or worse, the most expensive assuming it will be the best. This Samsung model has been hailed by reviewers as an excellent optical drive. It is compatible with all modern CD and DVD media, and has the option of LightScribe. If you read our PC Components Guide, you will know that LightScribe discs are overpriced and the process is quite slow, so this feature will probably go unused.

Grand total: $498.92 after two $30 mail-in rebates

It was hard to design a sub-$500 gaming capable PC. This build should be an excellent one, and the design leaves room for future upgrades (for example, the socket AM3 compatible motherboard and robust powersupply). Not many corners were cut to keep this build under $500. The AMD Phenom platform is still a strong one, and should provide many years of happy computing. If you can’t get the resolutions you desire of the graphical quality you were hoping for out of this build, then you will simply need to spend more money. A better graphics card, like the Radeon 4870 or the GeForce GTS250 or GTX260, would be a good first place to spend a little extra money.

As always, happy building!

How to: Build a $1000 Core i7 Gaming PC

Ryan Merck — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:54:00 +0000

To complement our recent guide on how to choose parts for a gaming PC, here is a build guide for the $1000 budget gamer. One thousand dollars is generally a common target for those looking for a big bang for their bucks. This build assumes you have a current keyboard mouse and monitor. This build will perform best on resolutions of 1080p or below (1920×1200/1080, 1680×1050, 1600×1200, 1280×1024). Newegg was used for all prices (as of April 1, 2009), so cheaper versions of the same or similar parts may be found elsewhere, and prices do not reflect mail-in rebates. Newegg was chosen because we have simply found that they are the easiest place to deal with when buying parts for a new system.

With the recent price drops of Core i7 compatible DDR3 memory, and X58 based motherboards, building a PC based on the latest and greatest processor is surprisingly cheap. This build focuses on gaming, but is well suited for any PC usage scenario.

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R ATX Intel Motherboard
Price: $199.99

Gigabyte, although not as popular as some other motherboard manufacturers, has a strong tradition of quality, and great support for their products. This board is robust enough for overclocking, and is priced very well. The overclocking options in the BIOS are robust, and the included software allows overclocking from a Windows based UI. While it lacks dual Ethernet, and some features of the higher end boards, it will provide enough features (2 iee 1394 ports, 8 USB ports, on board Realtek HD Audio, and even support for legacy ATA devices) to satisfy nearly anyone. Additionally, the board has a wide selection of on-board connectors for more USB and Firewire.

Processor (CPU)
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem
Price: $279.99

Most reviewers around the Internet just can’t say enough about the new Core i7 from Intel. This processor may not have the pure clock speed of some older Penryn based Core 2 chips, but it will certainly get the job done. While I wouldn’t recommend someone with a current Core 2 system upgrade to a Core i7 unless they are heavily into media encoding, for a new PC there is no reason to choose anything else.

Video Card (GPU)

EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 896-P3-1255-AR
Price: $199.99

The Core 216 version of the GeForce GTX 260 is an excellent value. The card is priced similarly to the Radeon 4870, but is faster in nearly every benchmark. If you find a cheaper 1GB version of the ATI 4870, that would also be a good performer. The GTX260 Core 216 vs. the 4870 1GB is essentially considered a toss up among reviewers. Check reviews and benchmarks to help decide which one is best for the games you play most often. Each card will work well on current games with high settings up to 1920×1200 resolution, and SLI or CrossFire is always an option if you upgrade to a larger display. I chose the GTX 260 here, because it comes with a free copy of Call of Duty: World at War. Additionally, a $20 mail-in rebate is available.

Memory (RAM)
OCZ DDR3-1333 SDRAM 6GB (3 x 2GB) Model OCZ3X1333LV6GK
Price: $94.99

This memory will certainly get the job done. Six gigabytes of memory with 1333MHz equivalent bandwidth will keep any program running smooth and fast. Prices are getting incredibly low on DDR3 memory, but speed, latency, and voltage are what sets this memory apart from cheaper alternatives. The memory can achieve 1333 speed at 7-7-7-20 timings with just 1.5V (don’t worry if this means nothing to you). This is well ahead of some low-end DDR3 kits, and will provide fast and cool performance with overclocking headroom in the future. OCZ has frequent mail-in rebates, with $20 on this memory currently.

Power Supply (PSU)
Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W
Price: $99.99

Although traditionally lauded for their memory, Corsair has recently been dominating the power supply market. Their PSU’s are known for providing clean reliable power to your system. This unit will be sufficient for this build, with significant headroom for expansion. The 650W PSU should be able to handle additional hard drives and an extra video card added to this configuration. This product also currently has a $20 mail-in rebate on Newegg.

Case
CoolerMaster Elite 332 ATX Mid tower RC-332-KKN1-GP
Price: $39.99

Hard Drive (HDD)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS
Price: $59.99

Optical Drive (ODD)
Samsung 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe
Model SH-S223Q
Price: $24.99

Grand total: $999.92

So, there you have it. A very respectable Core i7 based system for $1000.

Mail-in rebates bring the total down, and, personally, rebates through Newegg have always worked for me. I generally forget about rebates until they arrive, at which point I go buy a new game to enjoy.

This build guide is the first of many in a semi-regular series. Check back for more guides in different price sectors, and updates of current one. The next build guide will be sub-$500 PC challenge.

Happy building!

Netbook Gaming

Ryan Merck — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:01:44 +0000

“But I thought gaming on a Netbook was impossible.”

Netbook gaming, you have got to be kidding me. No, I am not joking, there are massive amounts of games that you can play on a Netbook, and I am not just talking about web games, or Peggle (although Peggle is loads of fun); I am talking about some of the best PC games ever made.

How to have fun playing amazing PC games on a $300 Netbook:

I should start by saying that I do not actually have a “Netbook.” What I do own, is a very low powered tablet PC, the Motion LE1600. The version I have is about 4 years old, and is based on the ultra-low voltage (ULV) Intel Celeron processor. The chip clocks in at 1GHz, and I have upgraded the machine to 2GB of RAM. Additionally, the graphics are courtesy of the Intel GM900 integrated chipset. This machine, although not a Netbook, does have very similar hardware. Recently I have been playing a lot of games on this PC, and have been having a blast.

It all started last year with the public beta of Good Old Games. I wanted to play Fallout and Fallout 2 again, but I didn’t know where the actual games were. The disks had been lost somewhere along the winding road. Well, lucky for me, GOG had a launch sale, 2 for 1. I thought for sure I was buying Fallout 1 and 2 until I saw another game, Messiah. Messiah was my white whale of gaming. I had preordered it after playing the demo, and paid in full (mistake) at the Electronics Boutique website. The game was delayed and my pre-order, and my money, were “lost.” Well, the GOG version of Messiah would unfortunately not run well on my main gaming rig, something about it being just too awesomely powerful. So I fired up the tablet, and tried it there. Brilliant, the game ran perfectly. This got me thinking about what other games I could enjoy on this “ancient” piece of hardware.

Messiah wasn’t the best game ever, but I enjoyed it.

The next game I tried was Alpha Centauri, one of my personal favorite games of all time, and considered by many to be the best turn-based 4X strategy game ever made. It was perfect. I could sit in bed or a recliner, and play for hours on a single charge without the machine getting more than a little warm. This my friends, is gaming at its best.

Now, I have had gaming laptops before. The last one I used regularly was equipped with a 15.4″ widscreen display and Radeon 9700. Sure it was great to play Half-Life 2 on, for about 30 minutes. By that point it was too hot to handle, and had to be put on the desk and plugged in, not to mention that it was uncomfortable to hold weighing in at around eight pounds.

My Netbook stand-in.

Other great games that run beautifully on my Netbook stand-in are Warcraft 2, the original Half-Life, anything from id up until and including Quake 3, Firefly Studio’s Stronghold: Crusader, the excellent racing game Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, the incredible Deus Ex, and the indispensible No One Lives Forever.

Maybe these old games do not sound that incredible to you, well have no fear, new Netbooks will be here. Newer Netbooks will soon be available with Intel’s G45 graphics core. This chip is easily as fast as an NVidia 6600GT. In fact, I have an HTPC built on a G45 with a Core2 E4300 at 1.8GHZ. This system should be roughly equivalent to Netbooks coming out in the near future. These will run things like FarCry, Quake 3, Oblivion, Mount and Blade, SimCity 4, or RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. I have even played modern source engine games like Team Fortress 2 on this machine with decent frame-rates by sacrificing resolution and graphics quality. Imagining something like that in the form factor of an 8″ Netbook is amazing. With a small, portable mouse, you will experience portable gaming bliss. Integrated notebook graphics have such a bad reputation, you would think no games will run on them. It is always surprising to me how ignored one of PC gamings greatest features is: the back library. No console can come near to matching the number of titles that will run on a modern PC. As a very general rule, a current Netbook with a 1.6GHz Atom processor and GMA950 graphics is about as powerful as a low end Pentium 4 with a GeForce 4 graphics card. If you own a Netbook, check out the system requirements on some of your older games, or just install them and test them out.

Now, to examine the not so great side of Netbook gaming:

Two main technical issues may arise when gaming on a Netbook, or a similar low-power laptop; these are operating system compatiblity and the lack of an optical drive. On my tablet, I have been running various Windows 7 alpha-beta soup builds since November. In my experience Win7 has the same backward compatibility with games that Vista and XP did. Games that you can get to run in Vista or in XP will generally work in Win7. So far, I have not run into any OS specific issues except one that relates directly to the second technical issue mentioned above; the lack of an optical drive.

The lack of an optical drive is not a major limitation.

Most Netbooks do not have optical drives, so digital distribution is a godsend. However, if you cannot get the games you want to play from Steam, GOG, Impulse, GameTap, or another digital distribution service and you still have the original CD you are not necessarily out of luck. I have found that quite a few games will install from a folder containing all of the files from the CD itself. In the days of 5 GB harddrives, it was hard to have many games loaded this way, but now, your whole “old games” library of CD’s could easily be put in folders or virtual cd images onto your machine. Unfortunately, the widely used CD emulation software Daemon-Tools will not run on Win7 yet (it runs fine on Vista). To mount virtual images in Win7, you will need a tool like Alcohol’s Virtual Clone Drive, which lacks the copy protection emulation features of Daemon-Tools.

Now stop, wait a minute. Before you stop reading and assume I am a pirate because I have mentioned Daemon Tools, there are very legitimate uses for the software. Namely, me wanting to play old games with CD based copy protection on a machine without a CD drive built in. Sure I could plug in an external drive, launch the game, and then unplug the external drive and hope the game will not check for a CD more than the single time at start up. That sounds like a blast. It is entirely within my fair-use rights to create an image of a disc that I own that can be emulated with software to let the game run. All this does is use a software layer (Daemon Tools) instead of a hardware layer (a CD or DVD drive) to show the game executable the copy protection string. This is not the same as using a modified “no-cd” executable created by a release group. Utilizing an executable that has been altered to bypass copy protection is a much more gray area in terms of the EULA and copy protection laws. If you own the game, you shouldn’t lose sleep over doing it, but I will not discuss it in anymore detail here. This non-sense only really applies to fairly recent games anyway. Any game before about 2000 should not have this issue. Club CDFreaks has a great list of the copy protections used in games, and information on how to make backups that will work.

The idea of Netbook gaming may make some more maximum users cringe, but I love it. With the right expectations, the Netbook can be a fabulous supplemental platform. Buying a Netbook and expecting it to run Crysis will make you sad, but realizing that you can replay through some of your old favorites while on the bus or out in the park is amazing. This is what we all dreamed about 10-20 years ago; “Some day computers will be small enough that you can play modern games in the palm of your hand.” I don’t see console gamers complaining that the PSP or DS are underpowered compared to their 360 or PS3, so why do so many PC users give the Netbook such a bad reputation for gaming? Current Netbooks are great, and with what is expected this year, the possibilities for an ultraportable gaming rig are excellent. The Netbook as a companion for your main gaming rig is a killer combination, and owning a Netbook will really extend your PC gaming experience, especially if you have missed, or just want to replay, some of the greatest games ever made.

Graphics Stagnation

Ryan Merck — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:15:00 +0000

Will we ever see graphics like this again?

Have PC game development cycles become completely dependent on the current generation of consoles? When was the last game that really pushed people to upgrade their rigs? Let me put forth a hypothetical scenario. I built a PC before Christmas 2006. It’s specs were as follows. Core2Duo E6700, overclocked to 3.2GHZ, on a 680i chipset with 4GB DDR2 ram and an 8800GTX with a 768MB frame buffer. This machine cost about $1500 new, not including a monitor.

It was a year before any game even made this rig sweat. Oblivion looked beautiful, FlightSim X finally got more than 20fps, Company of Heroes ran like butter, and Test Drive Unlimited made me want to visit Hawaii even more than I already do (providing that I had a super car to tool around in). Then, in Fall 2007, Crysis was released upon us, and it brought this rig to its knees. By which I mean it could not run the game at 1920×1200 with full graphics settings and anti aliasing turned on. Oh sure, it still ran perfectly fine at native resolution with the settings on medium, but we can’t have that now can we (/sarcasm). However, the addition of a second 8800GTX (after playing the Crysis demo) returned this rig to its former glory, and brought the total build cost up to near $2000 (split over two years mind you). People talked about not even tri-SLI running Crysis well, but this SLI rig ran it perfectly for playability on high and very high settings at native resolution at the time of release.

Oblivion looked great, in 2006

What did all that crying about Oblivion and Crysis having graphics that are too good for the average person do you ask? Tell me a game since Crysis that has taxed this system. Sure Assassin’s Creed gets a few frames per second less than Crysis, and World in Conflict was a CPU hog. You might be tempted to say GTA IV, but don’t, low (ish) framerates there were simply a result of poor design decisions and were fixed with drivers and patches.

This PC still runs the latest games amazingly well, almost three years later. Why? Two reasons: NVidia made an incredible GPU with the G80 (the core of the 8800 series), and developers got Crysis fever, choosing to limit graphics on the PC versions to please the masses. Even CryENGINE 3 (the next version of the Crysis engine), which we will see detailed at GDC, will be designed with current consoles and scalability in mind. This is sad, because it makes the PC platform lose a part of its appeal. People used to look to the PC for the best graphics of the day, hands down. Now, the graphics are still better on a PC, but at 1080p or roughly equivalent resolution, the argument can be made that something like Far Cry 2 or Burnout Paradise looks better on the console. I am not saying its an argument that can be won, but there are valid points to be made.

Hopefully console compatibility won’t limit CryENGINE 3 on Windows.

Some current releases with the best graphics: Fallout 3, Left4Dead, Burnout Paradise, Far Cry 2, and COD: World at War. Sure, all these games look great, but they are still sub par (at best) with a a game released more than year earlier. I love to be able to play games at their max settings, but I don’t think developers should ever limit the max settings of a game. If the game releases with a maximum that is not fully attainable for a year, so be it. Like PC gamers have for so many years, we will look forward to the time when we can afford to upgrade our rigs to see the game in all its glory. People have no patience for games any more. If you can’t afford it right now, pirate it; if it won’t run on your system, the developers got it wrong. Imagine the days when there was no CompUSA Circuit City Newegg to buy upgrade parts from and you had to buy a whole new computer for $3500 just to run Duke Nukem 3D.

Let’s hope that this is the year that PC developers stop limiting themselves. Hardware has improved in the last nearly 3 years, even if the 8800GTX was a beast of a card (especially in SLI). It is time that developers take things to the next level, and leave consoles and the Unreal Engine 3 in the dust. Unfortunately, after Cyrsis, the bar is pretty high. Looking at screens from that game today, make me realize how amazing it was going on two years ago. Maybe a game like Mafia II will do that. I am so excited for that game, I’ve decided to slip screenshots into everything.

This early shot of Mafia II is promising

Fully functional demos will never be popular

Ryan Merck — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:31:30 +0000

Are you a Pirate?

Let me start by saying that Mount & Blade is a great game, but regardless of the fact that the demo is essentially the full version of the game, it is still heavily pirated. M&B is a Medieval RPG, if you didn’t already know. The game has a very interesting and challenging combat style, and it has been praised as having the best horse combat ever.

A great thing about this game is that the demo version of this game is fully functional. You get the entire game– the full map, all the character creation features, all the weapons, everything. The only limitation is that you are capped at character level 4. You get a nice taste of the game playing the demo, and can really get into it. If you decide you want the full version, just buy a code and activate. Your saves will continue to work, and you can keep playing the character you have been working on. Why then do people pirate this game? It is simple, they think that games have no value. It is sad to see an independent developer struggle because people are greedy and cheap. I don’t know how well Mount & Blade has sold, but it does seem to invalidate the arguement that people often make, ‘I pirate because there is no demo’ or ‘the demo is too short to get a feel for the game.’

Mount and Blade is a great Medieval RPG.

Taleworlds did a great thing creating such a demo. Unfortunately, big developers will look at the piracy rate of this game and say “Why should we bother with a better demo, it won’t reduce piracy.” It is a shame that people are so unscrupulous that they would steal (yes, even though it is a digital copy it is stealing) from such a small game developer who worked hard to produce a retail version of a game that has been in development for 5 years.

The hidden story here is that the excellent demo for Mount and Blade has undoubtedly increased sales of this game. A good demo can have that affect, and a limited full version of the game can do even more. People remember notable demos. I remember downloading the demo for The Need for Speed on a 14400 modem. The demo for Crysis led me to buy the game and a new video card. The lack of a demo for Mirror’s Edge has me waiting to buy until I can play it in person, and confirm all the good things I am hearing about it.

Personally, I bought Mount and Blade only because I played (and had fun with) the demo, and I have greatly enjoyed it. I also know quite a few people who purchased it only after enjoying the demo, and likely would have never played it if there had been a less intriguing demo version. A fully functional demo that gives players a real feel for a game can do great things to promote a game, but it is doubtful that the corporate minds of the publishing world will see it that way. If only more companies would follow Valve with their ‘free weekends’ on Steam. Maybe the sales they make after such events will encourage more similar behavior from other publishers.