Customizing Your PC For Games

Some assembly is required in custom gaming PC. Once you have this huge pile of boxes in your house, the next step is to put it together. While we can't give you a tutorial on computer assembly, here are a few hints.

Make sure you have a good surface that minimizes static electricity. If possible, a bare concrete floor and a grounded table is the best surface, but barring that, you need to make sure you ground yourself frequently by touching the computer's chassis often. You can get an inexpensive wrist grounding strap for a few bucks at Radio Shack.

There are three tools that are invaluable in computer assembly. The first is a power screwdriver--the long, skinny kind, not the one that looks like a power drill. The second is a pair of small surgeon's forceps, for extracting and inserting jumpers in awkward places. The third is a set of spring-loaded claws that allow you to retrieve screws and other tiny objects that may have fallen into awkward locations.

But how does it perform once it's all together? Check out our performance table--the benchmarks tell the story. The CPUMarks are pretty much the highest we've seen, the disk Winmark is a staggering 1300 and the CD-ROM Winmark almost reaches 1100. More importantly, DOS games cook along too, as evidenced by QUAKE running quite smoothly at 640 x 400. The Orchid Righteous 3D runs like greased lightning on the P6 setup, posting very high scores on the D3Dtest.

Building a computer like this is no task for the faint-hearted. It's not so much the assembly that's difficult, but the time it takes to track down and identify best-of-breed components. Even if you can afford the $ 8,900 cost of entry, that's a lot of money in one fell swoop for something that will be obsolete shortly. Still, like the guys who build hot rods in their garages, there's something deeply satisfying about building your own machine, and knowing it's the best system money can buy--at least this month.

* Intel 200 MHz Pentium Pro processor

* AIR P6NPI motherboard with Natoma chip-set64 MB of EDO DRAM

*Quantum Atlas II ultra-wide SCSI 4.4 GB hard drive

* Plextor 12x SCSI CD-ROM drive

* Matrox Millenium graphics accelerator

* Orchid Righteous 3D accelerator (3Dfx Voodoo)

* Creative Labs AWE-32 PnP sound card

* Yamaha SW60XG Waveforce wavetable card

* CH GameCard 3 joystick card

* 3COM Etherlink XL network card

* The Micron Home MPC and Falcon Northwest Mach V scored the highest ratings in last month's Ultimate Game Machine roundup, earning 5-stars and 4.5 stars respectively.

The subject of controllers always results in a heated discussion among gamers. The choice of joysticks or gamepads seems to be one of the most personal ones any game player can make. This year, we went unabashedly for the high end. For flight controls, we chose the Thrustmaster F-22 Pro control stick paired with their TQS throttle quadrant. We stuck with the CH Pro Pedals, preferring the closer spacing and overall feel of the CH pedals to the Thrustmaster RCS. However, there's always a need for a joystick that you can just plug in and go for quick games, so the CH F16 Combat stick is still a solid alternative to the F-22's need for extensive program downloads.

Gaming PC