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And What The Computer Retailers Don’t Want You To Know!

For a gamer, what can be more fulfilling than to build your own gaming computer? In fact, the only way to get the best out of your computer and maximize your gaming experience is to build it yourself. However, there are tightly kept secrets among computer retailers that they don’t want you to know, because it will affect their profitability to a great extent. This article will reveal the secrets that all gamers need to know.

Secret 1) It is very easy to build your own gaming computer

If everyone knows how easy it is to build a computer, then no one will be buying from the computer retailers. This is why most computer retailers tell you that it is very troublesome and complicated to build your own and it is better off to buy one off the shelf. In actual fact, my 10 years old kid took only 1 hour to figure out how to build a computer. How long do you think you need?

Secret 2) It is much cheaper to build your own gaming computer than to buy one off the shelf

Keep in mind that the main focus of the computer retailer is to make as much profit from you, not how good your gaming experience is. As such, never expect a cheap gaming computer from computer retailers. Occasionally, computer retailers may package their computers in a low price to entice you to buy. The fact is: you will not be getting the quality component that your price is paying. Most of the parts in the computer will not be suitable for gaming usage. It might boost the latest CPU in the market, but the power supply, graphics card, motherboards and memory are parts that get obsolete very fast. If you are patient enough to shop around and source for the parts you want, you can save up to 30 - 50% of what you going to pay at the retail store.

Secret 3) Off the shelf computers are not upgradeable

Building your own computer allows you to choose the parts that are upgradeable in the future. Off the shelf computers don’t and the retailers are keeping mum about it. Most off the shelf computers are using parts that will grow obsolete in a year or two times and the only choice you have then is to buy another computer from them again.

Secret 4) You don’t need extended warranties and technical support

Your computer retailers will definitely sell you the benefit of having extended warranties and technical support because they know that most of the time, it will not realise and it is a pure profit for them. By buying one, you’re betting that your product will break, that the extended warranty will cover the damage, and that repairing the product would cost more than you paid for the extended warranty. In that case, why bother to buy from them in the first place? When you build your own gaming computer, each part comes with warranty. Even if it spoils, you only have to change the individual part rather than the whole computer. This is much cheaper than what you pay for the extended warranty. In addition, the lifespan of a computer system is generally 3-5 years. By the time your whole computer system is spoilt, it is also time to get a new one because all your computer parts will be obsolete by then.

Conclusion

The only way to get the best out of your computer, be it the cost or the gaming performance, is to build your own gaming computer. Computer retailers are keeping mum about this fact and trying means to entice you to buy from them. If you are serious about gaming, don’t ever let the computer retailers stand in your way of owning your very best gaming computer.

Gaming accessories play a very important part in game play. Here is where you can find the best recommendations and reviews of the top gaming accessories on the market.

Gaming Mouse

In game such as Counterstrike, Half-life and other FPS games, the mouse plays an important role. A sensitive mouse can give you faster movements and more accuracy, which will give you the edge over your competitor.

Logitech G7 Laser Gaming Mouse is one of the best gaming mouses currently on the market. It has a highly sensitive level of 2000dpi and uses a laser engine to provide high accuracy even for small movements. I have personally used this mouse for my Counterstrike session and the difference was huge compared to my previous conventional optical mouse. My movement was much faster and my shots were more accurate.

Along with a good gaming mouse is a good mouse pad. A good mouse pad must have a smooth surface to match the movement of the mouse. Soft Trading Icemat 2nd Edition Mouse Pad provides a large surface to make sure that your mouse never runs out of space. With a size of 10×12inch, it is currently the largest mouse pad on the market.

RatpadzGS is a mouse pad that provides an excellent surface. It is claimed to be designed by gamers, tested by gamers, and built by gamers. During a major national gaming event, over 1,500 RatpadzGS prototype pads were given to all types of PC gamers. The makers listened to the gamers’ feedback, and made improvements. Its size at 11.55×9.3inches also makes the mouse movement very comfortable.

Gaming Keyboard

In the gaming world, a keyboard is no longer a tool used solely for typing. It is also used for movement, hot keys and many other things.

There are several gaming keyboards on the market. I personally prefer and recommend Ideazon Zboard ZBD-101. Apart from the standard keyset for typing, it has an extra gaming keyset for FPS and action games. The multi-function keys that can be used to program various commands in one button have made it very user-friendly. Gamers should be able to get accustomed to this keyboard in a very short time.

Headset

There will be times when you are playing games till the late night and have to switch off your speakers. This is when the headset comes into play. A good headset should preserve the audio quality and retain the same performance as a surround sound speaker.

Tritton AXPC 5.1 USB Rumble Gaming Headphones is one of the few headsets that are Dolby Digital and Dolby Prologic certified. This headset really impresses me a lot. The eight speakers in the two ear cups act like a surround sound speakers and the vibration really rocks my ears. Definitely one of the best headsets I would recommend.

Gamepad & Joystick

Most computer games require only a keyboard and a mouse, but there are some specialized games that require a gamepad or joystick for better gaming experience. Most of the gamepads are similar to those used by popular console (such as PS2 or Xbox). This allows the user to switch between different consoles easily. It is also one of the marketing strategies for PC game developers to recapture the market lost to PS2 and Xbox.

Check out Controller Store for your selection of controllers.

Optional Accessories

A gamer usually spends a lot of time staring at the screen. Getting an anti-glare cover will help to protect your eyes from radiation. You may also want to consider getting a wrist rest to improve your comfort level.

Others

If you own a laptop, you can check out Direct Laptops Guide for more information on laptop accessories

Conclusion

Gaming accessories serve as a complement to your gaming computer. Though they are not the main components, their presence will surely add spice and bite to your game play. If you have already invested in a great gaming computer, getting the best gaming accessories around makes a lot of sense

AGP — A high speed point-to-point channel for attaching a graphics card to a computer’s motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics

ATA — Advanced Technology Attachment, It is the primary standard for connecting storage to PC’s. It is also known as IDE.

ATAPI — Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface, a set of extensions to the ATA standards to allow ATA CD/DVD drives and tape drives.

ATX — Refer to the shape and size of motherboards.

BIOS — Basic Input/Output System, a software run by the computer to prepare the machine so other software programs can load, execute, and assume control of the computer

BUS — A collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one part of a computer to another.

Cache — Cache memory is random access memory that a computer microprocessor can access more quickly than it can access regular RAM. As the microprocessor processes data, it looks first in the cache memory and if it finds the data there (from a previous reading of data), it does not have to do the more time-consuming reading of data from larger memory.

Chipset — It is a group of integrated circuits that can be used together to serve a single function and are therefore manufactured and sold as a unit. For example, one chipset might combine all the microchips needed to serve as the communications controller between a processor and memory and other devices in a computer.

CPU — Central Processing Unit, the central unit in a computer containing the logic circuitry that performs the instructions of a computer’s programs.

Disk Cache — A portion of RAM used to speed up access to data on a disk. The RAM can be part of the disk drive itself or it can be general-purpose RAM in the computer that is reserved for use by the disk drive

Firewire — A form of interface standard that offers high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data services.

Form Factor — The physical shape and size of the motherboard

Front Side Bus (FSB) — The physical bi-directional data connection that carries all electronic signal information between the CPU and other devices within the system

Gigabyte GB — A measure of computer data storage capacity and is "roughly" a billion bytes. A gigabyte is two to the 30th power, or 1,073,741,824 in decimal notation.

Graphics Accelerator — A type of video adapter that contains its own processor to boost performance levels. These processors are specialized for computing graphical transformations, so they achieve better results than the general-purpose CPU used by the computer

Hard Disk — A magnetic disk on which you can store computer data

IDE — An interface for mass storage devices, such as the hard drive or CD-ROM drive

Kilobyte KB — A measure of computer data storage capacity and is "roughly" a thousand bytes. A gigabyte is two to the 10th power, or 1,024 in decimal notation.

Megabyte MB — A measure of computer processor storage and real and virtual memory, a megabyte is 2 to the 20th power bytes, or 1,048,576 bytes in decimal notation.

Megahertz MHz — One MHz represents one million cycles per second. The speed of microprocessors, called the clock speed, is measured in megahertz. For example, a microprocessor that runs at 200 MHz executes 200 million cycles per second. Each computer instruction requires a fixed number of cycles, so the clock speed determines how many instructions per second the microprocessor can execute. To a large degree, this controls how powerful the microprocessor is

Parallel Port — It is a type of physical interface used in conjunction with a cable to connect separate peripherals in a computer system. Over a parallel port, binary information is transferred in parallel: each bit in a particular value is sent simultaneously as an electrical pulse across a separate wire

PCI — A computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a computer motherboard

PCI Express — An implementation of the existing PCI computer bus, but it is much faster

Pipelining — A technique used in advanced microprocessors where the microprocessor begins executing a second instruction before the first has been completed. That is, several instructions are in the pipeline simultaneously, each at a different processing stage

RAID — Redundant Array of Independent Disks, a set of standards for teaming disk drives to improve fault tolerance and performance.

RAM — Random Access Memory, a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly; that is, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes.

Serial ATA (SATA) — A computer bus technology primarily designed for transfer of data to and from a hard disk.

Serial Port — It is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time

Virtual Memory — It is a concept that, when implemented by a computer and its operating system, allows programmers to use a very large range of memory or storage addresses for stored data. The computing system maps the programmer’s virtual addresses to real hardware storage addresses. Usually, the programmer is freed from having to be concerned about the availability of data storage.