1) Motherboard
Asus P5B
Sporting Intel’s excellent 965 chipset, the P5B ticks all the boxes for us, as it supports Core 2 Duo processors, dual-channel memory up to 800MHz, and of course, will take any PCI-Express graphics card we choose. In our experience, Asus boards are competent and reliable, and this model, with its 1066MHz FSB and decent overclocking headroom, is just the ticket for a fast rig.
2) Processor
Intel Core 2 Duo E6320
Chipzilla’s legendary Core 2 architecture is at the heart of this dual-core chip, and the reason we’ve chosen the lowly 1.86GHz model is that its overclocking potential is massive, even using the bundled stock Intel heatsink. With a little bit of tweaking, you can wind this baby up so that it performs like a high-end Core 2 Duo processor that costs way more. We’ll show you how next month.
3) Memory
OCZ PC6400 800MHZ 5-5-5-12
We just wouldn’t bother playing a game on a rig with less than 2Gb memory these days, especially if Vista is involved. This 2Gb kit from OCZ fits the bill perfectly: it’s fast, it boasts reasonable latencies, and its quite acceptably priced.
4) 3D card
XFX GeForce 8800GTS
Simply put, there’s never been such a performance-to-price sweet spot as that offered by the 320Mb iteration of nVidia’s 8800 GTS design. If you need a yardstick to measure it by, then think of it like this: it offers 80% of the power of the fabled 8800GTX, for 60% of the price. It’s a card that is DirectX 10-ready, and also runs DX9 games effortlessly. Resolution-wise, its natural home is between 1280x1024 and 1680x1050 - any more than this is stretching its abilities to keep pace. Stock tends to be very low on these cards at most retailers as they sell like hotcakes, but any brand will do; stock cards are identical in performance, regardless of their brand.
