DiabloFans

Quote from ErU

1- I'm not talking about regular, normal gear, i'm talking about legendaries, these are rare end game drops that most people will never see(even in D2, if it weren't for dupes, most people would never have access to WF, GF, runewords, etc), chinese farmers will be farming the same elite boss 24/7, other players will be leveling, dueling, talking with friends, so yes, they are the ones making a real profit of it.

It doesn't matter if it's super-rare or super-common, they're still having to compete with everyone. But now, those of people that don't have 20 hours a day to play can supplement their time with real money, if they want.

The thing is once you have the item, you can turn around and sell it yourself to get the money back out of it, depending on the market value of the item at the time.

Quote from ErU

2- I have no problem with people acquiring godly gear throught conventional means(aka as trading, item for item) this means that i can't just jump on the game, drop a thousand and instantly dominate pvp. Secondly, that is just you assuming that people would rather keep that ''super sexy sword of doom'' instead of selling it for $600+, it's a pretty clear choice for me.

Yep, just like it's you assuming that people would rather buy items then try and find them for themselves.

3- This is quickly turning into another AH topic...

Yep.

Quote from okrane

Two cents:

a ) The overall expected longevity of the game from the perspective of the player will heavily influenced by the RMAH.

Diablo 3's end game will most likely be centered around item hunting in one form or another. The main difference between a gold based AH and a dollar based one is the fact that at the start of the game the player starts with 0 gold, whereas he can potentially start with an infinite amount of dollars.

Gold intake and item rarity can help control the pace at which players gain gear and ultimately the number of (estimated) hours a player must spend in game in order to obtain everything there is to obtain. Dollars circumvent this issue. In fact, nothing is stopping the player to level up to level 60, put in a great amount of money to fully gear up his character and then be done with the game.

It is actually in the detriment of the player to invest amounts of money into the game as it will limit his game time and his overall enjoyability of the game. Let's keep in mind that this game won't be like wow: it is the process of gaining the gear that must be the fun part; once all gear aquired there is simply nothing left to do.

Basically this dollar AH will function like a big "Cheat" button on the game's screen. I dont know how many players would play a game with an "I cheat" button attach to it. Personally, when I start cheating at a game I know that quitting will come soon after.

Mostly agreed. But this is no way a "Cheat". What would be a cheat is if this item wasn't coming from inside the game and was artificially injected into the economy (like a dupe). Trading for items with money is no more a cheat then trading items for items or gold. They all have a cost and all of their costs are relative to each other. The item still had to be acquired by someone, and that investment in time by someone is real and was paid for by the buyer.

Quote from okrane

b ) Because Blizzard will make money out of every transaction, the game's design will be altered to encourage players to use the service.

< Let's make a quick parallel with wow : blizzard makes money from players paying sub fees for months: so they will release a shitty content and make sure you have to grind at it for months before finishing it. Dont tell me dailies are fun gameplay >

We will see in the close future the same effects on Diablo's gameplay: item resets, item nerfs, new recipes, and other arbitrary stuff in order to force the economy to flourish and the players to echange more and more items on the AH so that the cash goes into their pockets.

The design of the game already catered to the nature of the auction house well before it was in place. So to assume that the design will some how be altered is simply a theory, and it reflects your lack of faith in a company that has a responsibility to maintain a good image with both it's players and it's investors.

Additionally the auction house was designed to minimize the profit they'd actually be receiving to make it more profitable for players. Sure, they'll make money, but they're not maximizing their potential. There is also the overhead of the infrastructure (servers, software) and employees to consider. I'm fine paying a nominal fee to use the new system if it means blizzard will be around to enhance this and make more great games. Especially when it's easy for me to cover that fee simply by playing a game I was going to anyway.

Quote from rexbo88

I don't understand why people say that fact that you don't feel the need to look at a guide good is a positive attribute. I feel like Jay Wilson uses this as a cop-out instead of realizing that maybe it's easy to use because its so over simplified you cannot make a mistake.

I also still think that the reason they made these changes was a quick way out of balancing, instead of saying everyone is taking arcane orb over arcane missle maybe we should make arcane missle more attractive, they just say "OK lets just make it easier to respec to skip this ability".

I'm not sure if this new system will be good as I havent played the game, but it sounds like it will make the game really shallow when making each character.

The point is it's no more shallow then the other systems when it comes to the depth it gives characters. If anything it provides more depth to your character then the other systems because now you have more meaningful options. If you think this system is going to make shallow characters then you have to think the same thing about the old system - period.

Quote from Burgestrum

First of all I'd like to say hi I have only just come across this community and it definitely seems like the place to be if you are a Diablo fan (excuse the pun)

I've had a few things going on in my head since the changes were announced and I've really wanted to share them but unfortunately no one I know plays Diablo so I hope you don't mind me bouncing them around here.

This choice to remove skill points really bothers me. One thing I've loved about Diablo is the customization I have with my character, but now I feel like it's being stripped away (or shifted away, but I'll get onto that). Taking Magic Missile as an example, if you have 2 naked lvl 60 Wizards standing next to each other you know that no matter what, both of them will do the same damage if its dependant on clvl. What if you want to make a powerful Magic Missile build?

Back in D2 I could have chosen to make a Magic Missile build by pumping my points into it (also its synergies, but I don't want to suggest they should be in D3). In D3 I can only assume it will be my gear that will allow my build to stand out from every other Wizard. If this is the case then this looks to me like it will be a lot harder to do.

With skill points I knew 100% that when I levelled up I would be given a point, and that I could use that point to make Magic Missile more powerful if I chose to. Now I have to rely on a fraction of a % that gear will drop that gives Magic Missile a boost. Then there's runes which have a drop % to begin with, and now there is the possibility there will be even more chance % added if they are blind until put into the skill. So has the customization of characters/builds been shifted totally to gear which you can't be guaranteed to get in drops like you would in skill points?

Never fear though, because that is what the AH is for right?... This makes me feel like I'm being funnelled into the AH if I want to have choice in the direction of my character to make it different from the generic mob. I'm going to assume that the ability to be different and be customizable are big parts of what players want, so if (and this is a big IF) the real money AH is where the majority of trading is going to happen, then Blizzard stands to make a fair bit of $ if this is the way they are shifting us to customize our characters. Could this be an additional motive for the changes they have made?

Please feel free to tell me way off track with what I'm saying because I'm sure most of you are more knowledgeable than me in about this stuff, I just needed to get this out of my head.

Whoa, really?

Ok, it seems like you're sincere so I won't rant at you. But there are some things i'd like to point out here.

You're not alone in your feelings regarding the skill point changes. A lot of people feel the same way. But I can't help but feeling that people are feeling this way because they expect a system that plays very much like Diablo 2. That's fine, but your expectations are falling short.

If you step back a moment and think about how the old system worked versus the new system, specifically talking about the distribution of skill points, the new system functions in very much the same way. But instead of having to choose which skill gets better, they all simply do. It's like putting 1 point in every skill from Diablo 2.

The customization comes from the skills you choose to use, and the runes you find and want to apply to those skills. Keep in mind you can only have 6 skills chosen at any one time. I also suspect (though it's just speculation) that if you switch your skills, you'll have to find more runes.

Now, stepping back to your example of the 2 wizards. What's different about that between Diablo 2? I know my build was never unique, because there were only a handful of good builds for each class that EVERYONE used. With the new system in Diablo 3 it makes it much easier for people to have viable builds using other skills. So it's more likely in the new system that you will see people that *don't* have the same skills. Yeah, sure you'll find those people that do, but that's just a lesson in statistics i'd rather not talk about.

Customization through gear has always been an integral part of the system, yet again, in Diablo 2 the system was pigeon holed because people wanted specific things for their specific builds. So what happened is that more and more people had the same exact build because it was the best, mathematically, for that class. Diablo 3 just stays truer to the original intention in that people are exposed to many more options.

As i'm sure you know the AH has 2 versions a real money one and a gold one, right? But I'm sure you also know that the auction house is fueled by people who have *found* those items in the game, right? You're not forced to buy *anything* from the auction house. Go out there, kill shit, and find it yourself. If you don't find the item you're looking for, sell the stuff you did find and bid on it, trade for it, or cry.

Granted it's hard to say how any of these systems is going to be utilized by the player base, but the way they've set it up definitely caters to a much broader system allowing for many more unique builds. And when I say "allowing" I don't mean system limitations, I mean social limitations. People are more likely to have 2 polarized builds that are equally as cool and effective.

My 2 cents.

Quote from Daemaro

I think it's a fair assumption we'll see Mephisto and Baal if not physically then a lot of story about it. The church of the triune has surfaced again as well which worships the Prime Evils.

I don't expect to see Andariel or Duriel back. They failed at their task the first time, why carry them along again? They're probably being punished. It seems we will however see the Mistress of Pain, seems to be Duriel's lover.

I can also guarantee we'll hear a lot about Azmodan and Belial. That's almost a given.

I can't f'n wait to punch some evil mofos in the face.

I think overall they have made the right decisions on the way to go with DIII and this interview sheds some light on their reasoning. I'm a bit of an optimist but it would take some effort for these guys to come out with something that I would utterly despise. They have a challenge to keep me playing DIII as long as I have DII, but if anyone is up to the task it's them.

I think having the random quests and what not setup the way they do may actually allow them to release content updates easier. They could literally focus on creating random content "tiles" and drop them into the available pool. Granted this is speculation, but I could see something like that happening easier. At worst, it will keep people like me interested for a long time.

Ultimately i'm super-happy about them sticking with the isometric view and despite the long, somewhat loosened, debates about how the game looks; I think it looks amazing. I can't stop drooling over some of the environments we see in the various movies and screens.

Just as a side note regarding the quests: Diablo isn't really known for having quest failures. I'm sure it's something they could, and may have, implemented. But quests in the Diablo games have always been a matter of do until complete or die trying. I'm not sure how a quest failure (like an NPC dying) would fit into the ARPG model anyhow - but I suppose we will see.

For whatever reason, the pics included in the press release kit were in .tga format so I decided to convert them into a common type, .png. I figured people might want to see these or download them.

The gallery I created can be found here: Press Event Pics (Aug 1 2011)




Alternatively, just click the spoiler buttons below.


In addition, I've decided to create a video showcasing them, followed by Force's video below. Both videos need 1080p to really enjoy them fully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh8mSGcapB8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXZTt7mPPbA

Quote from JCVB

What exactly made buying items for RL money 'bad', why was it illegal, and how does it relate to the gaming of the individual? Now don't get me wrong, I'm not for or against the RMAH, but it would be a good thing to list things to avoid confusion.

Traditionally, the pre-UO ancient online gaming viewpoint was that breaking immersion with cash was wrong just because it broke immersion. There was also a strong corrleation between hacking and cash transfers because of the hard-line stance companies took against all cash-systems. This took many years to soften and only in the last half a dozen years have companies really opened up real-currency markets with both input and outputs that showed success.

Quote from JCVB

1- An advantage in the game without effort being put towards it within the game itself.
2- When someone geared up his character only by trading it with in-game resources/finding it to have people dismiss it as "Pfft, anyone can do that with money." Takes away from achieving by bragging.

1. There's always effort being put in by someone (bots should be a seperate issue/problem): A construction foreman still builds a house, even though he never touches a hammer. He's still proud of what he acconplshed because he "earned," it. Even if the guy using a hammer did the physical act, the foreman still is complicit and enjoys the rewards.

2. Bragging/ePeen wagging are useless and frankly, I could care less about this. Hardcore players, to my mind, have the only rights to brag and they have no RMAH so, moot point.

Quote from JCVB

Why was it illegal in Diablo 1 and 2? I'll post a few arguments here first, then I'll edit the post to add more if/when people post:
1- "I looked in to why it was illegal and found that it was potentially a breading ground for scamming and there was no legal way to punish those who didn't fulfill the trade." -lowl
(Why it was actualy made illegal is unkown to me at the time, but I'm sure you all are happy to help with finding that out.)

See my first paragraph. Diablo is a relatively old series relative to the development of cash-transfer systems as integrated into gaming. This is like asking why there were no hybrid cars in 1950. There were, actually, prototype batter-powered gasoline engine vehicles, but they were not mainstream and there was no presedent for their widespread use. A combination of social, political, and economic realities (as well as technology) caused hybrid cars to become a mainstream concept. [Please don't argue with this anaolgoy, I have no useless green agenda here, it's just to make a point]

Quote from JCVB

How are the people playing the game actualy effected if they don't use the RMAH? I'll post a few arguments here first, then I'll edit the post to add more if/when people post:
1- Depending on the way the GAH and RMAH interact they might not have easy access to all the gear. If the GAH and RMAH currencies are interchangeable then people are likely to put high quality items on the GAH.
2- On the flipside, the best of the best items will only be put on the RMAH if the monetary value far outweighs the value you'd get for it in the GAH.
(The above two points are completely based on speculation and depend heavily upon the value of Gold in the game.)
3- When you meet someone who bought gear from the RMAH. Does meeting someone who spent a lot more time playing with the same gear as the one who bought it actualy effect your own enjoyment? This would boil down to Time = Money.
4- The bragging rights you have when finaly having the best possible gear. People could dismiss you as a "RMAH'er" diminishing the feeling of achievement.
5- "Grinding is now an impractical and illogical use of time (not that it wasn't already) and the only way to feel a secure boasting stance is through pvp; which only seems possible after doing something mundane or spending lots of money to acquire these elite items. The unique specs and techniques are a minor perk in comparison." -lowl

1. There is always going to be a corrolation between gold and money in tandem. Exceptional items wouldn't be on the gold AH anyway (even in a magic world with no RMAH and no black market) because their value would exceed the gold that players could accrue reasonably or use prudently. ie. Items in D2 that were worth greater than X SoJs were terribly hard to barter with early on.

2. See #1, correlation of value. Also, I believe the development of gold fauct/sink realtionships in D3 is going to be markedly improved over previous. It is true that blizzard will need to be keen on this, but I feel there's no reason to doubt since they are hell-bent on making this work.

3 and 4. Back to the Smug/ePeen issue. Again, hardcore players have it. Others have no right to it. I feel no pity for the guy who feels cheated in his in-game chest-pounding ability by this on his softcore "look at how much time I spent at the keyboard with absolutely no indication of how good I am at actually playing the game," character.

5. PvP is a touchy subject here, but i'm giving this a go without going on my usual "diablo 3 isn't intended for serious pvp," tangent. Imagine a character is geared all to hell and back and looks to duel someone with less gear. Regardless of how they got it, what do you think of them? They're just looking to bash newbs or get easy kills. No respect there. In either case, it's a personal thing and not to the detriment of someone who wants to be evenly matched.

Secondly, imagine two characters (one who bought his exceptional gear, one who earned it) duel. Who will win that fight? Well, tossing class-balance aside so as not to muddy the waters, I would assume the "earned it," player does. Why? Because he spends more time playing the game. He is familiar with his character more so than the guy who just kitted out his and went on to press buttons. Admittedly, if the buyer is also experienced, this could shift the scales, but then were is the "didn't earn it," argument going? I think there are a lot of unsavory contraditions in these pvp examples.

Primarily though, we have to understand that Blizzard (from being very honest in it's feedback) wants this to be a cooperative arpg and does not feel the need to overly justify RMAH side-effects on pvp. When you build a car to do 0-60 in a few seconds and run a road course effectively, you really can't be bothered with how the tires would handle an off-road expedition. These are two vary diffirent genres of game people are talking about and unfortunately, one of them isn't the current iteration of Diablo 3.

I think the trouble with these discussions is that its wholly dependent on how much time you can, or want to, invest in playing one game. Or, invest in one particular portion of a game.

[IMPORTANT: This is not a post insulting people who like to spend a lot of time playing games. I am one of you.]

I read posts like the OP and I have hard time understanding because I never, ever wanted to experiment with D2's skill system because it required too much time investment, and I've played D2 for hundreds of hours.

I played offline and hacked my skills to find fun builds -- Prior to having character "Trainers" I hated experimenting because the game demanded that I start over to fix any bad choices or mistakes I made, but I just wanted to keep moving forward and having fun chopping things up for loot. As a result, the skill system gave me zero sense of "customization." (Link to my post yesterday in a similar thread.)

Permanent skill choices that have uncertain impact on my character's viability late game = "terrible game design" to me, but for players who enjoy that level of time investment, its a fun challenge to overcome.

For me, I enjoyed re-rolling characters primarily to:
- use new, awesome loot I found at lower levels.
- start up a new character combination with a friend.
- enjoy slaughtering things from the beginning all over again.
- select one of two skill templates I finally settled on as fun for a given class.

So, for me, D3's skill system is throwing out a binary choice (which of my 2 preferred templates?) at early game, and suddenly making experimentation with new skill combinations both fun and POSSIBLE without hacking my character. I was thrilled to hear there was a respec system, but now, throwing out point-loading on skills? It's honestly identical, its just removing the respec step where I click repeatedly on a new collection of skills.

I can understand why some people dislike this change, but from my perspective: the people who will truly dislike this change long-term after D3's release will be a vast minority. Being a niche audience does not make your preferences or concerns invalid, (I sure as hell fall into this category for other games!) but it is useful to put a little perspective on this debate we're having. I feel these changes make it a better game for a majority of pre-existing Diablo fans -- this is not just a change inspired by the casual-gamer-horde they've snagged with WoW.

I've noticed an increasing amount of people looking into purchasing new parts for either building a new PC, or for upgrading their current PC. So, like the title says, this is where I'd like as much of the future discussion as possible to happen in regards to computers and builds (maybe eventually we can get our own subforum:cool:).

I think condensing some information will really help with some of the new builders. So I'll start by giving a "quick" rundown on how to pick out the parts to build a gaming pc. Mind you, this guide is mostly for beginners, and some things are generalized or completely skipped over. I will follow this up at a later time with an Overclocking guide.

The first thing to building your own pc is to have the right tools ready.

1. Screwdrivers, phillips and flathead. Preferably with magnetic heads. One long, one stubby, and one pencil screwdriver of each would be advised.
2. Flashlight.
3. Tweezers/Needle nose pliers
4. Anti-static mat/Anti-static wrist strap - I'm a hypocrit, since I have never used one, but it is still advised whenever touching any PC equipment to avoid shorting out parts with static electricity. If you refuse to get one like myself, I would suggest working on a tile surface, washing your hands before working on the system, touching a piece of bare metal on the case, and not moving around a whole lot while working on the PC. For my work surface, I simply turn a motherboard bag inside out and lay it on my desk. The inside is the only part of the bag that is actually anti-static.
5. Ambition and a little bit of a mechanical mind:thumbsup:

These are the individual parts that you will need in order to actually run your PC. I will be discussing each in detail.

1. PC Case
2. CD/DVD Drive(I don't think anyone is using Floppy drives anymore)
3. Hard Drive (HDD)
4. Motherboard (MB)
5. Central Processing Unit (CPU)
6. CPU Heatsink/Fan/water cooling solution and additional case fans/WC solutions
7. RAM modules
8. Power Supply
9. Video Card
10. Monitor
11. Keyboard & Mouse
12. Speakers

1. PC Case

This is the part of the computer that houses all of your pc components. Things you'll want to look for:

A. Case Size - This depends on the space in which you will be keeping your case, and what size of components you will be using. Such as your video card, your CPU heatsink/fan, MB, your PSU, and how many HDD's and disc drives you are planning to run. Make sure your case supports the size of MB your are looking to run (ATX, MicroATX, ITX, etc)

B. Case Cooling - This is important because there are a slew of cases out there that have inadequate cooling. Lots of small fans (80mm or less) in a case isn't really that efficient. The smaller the fan the faster it needs to spin in order to push the same volume of air as a larger fan. You should look for a case with the smallest size fans being 120mm. Although I prefer 140 mm fans and larger for a quieter case. More recently there have become a lot of cases offering fan slots of up to 250mm.

C. Front Panel I/O ports - Every case comes standard with 2 USB ports and a headphone and mic jack. Some PC cases have additional ports which could be necessary to you if you need an eSATA port or Firewire. But with USB 3.0 out now, most people will ignore eSATA and Firewire.

D. Miscellaneous Features - This includes things like case color, case design, cable management features, water cooling capability, upgradeable design (aka future proof), no tool drive bays, removeable motherboard tray, outwards facing hard drive enclosure, etc. These features shouldn't be worried about when you are first choosing the above features of the case. These should be considered bonuses to the case, so they should mainly be used as a tiebreaker when you can't choose between 2 or 3 cases.

2. CD/DVD Drive

Choosing one of these is pretty standard. The options for these are few. CD, DVD, DVD writer, BlueRay, BlueRay writer, DVD/BlueRay, and finally Lightscribe. Most people will need at the very least a DVD drive. You might want a BlueRay/DVD combo, or even a BlueRay burner. But mainly this choice is dependent upon what media you have or plan on using.

3. Hard Drive (HDD)

The HDD is where you will be storing all of your files and documents. Size is the biggest factor, with speed being the second factor in buying one of these. Companies are now making HDD's up to 2 TB in size, which is more than any average person will ever need. Speeds of HDD's currently range from 3,200rpm, to 15,000rpm. The faster the rpm, the faster the transfer rate of files, and also faster loading times/boot times.

Now there is also another kind of HDD, which is the Solid State Drive (SSD). These actually don't have a spool or RPM. They are closer in design to your RAM modules, in the way that they store information. Since these SSD's don't require the read head to move to different places, there is virtually no delay when opening several high demand programs. Also, the boot times are significantly dropped. The drawback to these is that they are still a fairly new technology, so the prices are much higher, and the storage capacity is much lower.

4. Motherboard (MB)

This is the part of the computer that everything runs off of. Power flows into this board, and is distributed to everything else from here. MB's have several options.

These are the main ones to look at:

A. Size - ATX, Micro ATX, ITX, etc. ATX and MicroATX are the standard sizes right now, and most people will be looking for the ATX size, simply because they usually have better features and are more cost efficient. Make sure your case supports the type of board you plan on using.

B. Chip support - There will come a point when you need to decide whether you want an AMD platform or an Intel platform. Both Intel and AMD have their strong points, and both will get the job done equally well. This is dependent upon which CPU you plan to use.

C. PCI Express - These are what you use to plug in your Video Card. Basically every modern MB has at least 1 PCIe x16 slot. x16 stands for the actual slot, but what gets confusing is that not all slots run at that x16 width. Most MB's only have the 1st PCIe slot wired for x16, and any subsequent slots are wired at either x8 or x4. The difference in these is amount of the bandwidth that the information travels on. Now the only reason you would really need to worry about the additional slots being x8 or x4 wired, is if you are running multiple cards in SLI or Crossfire. But even then, the difference is negligible. The reason is that the only cards that fully max out the x8 bandwith consistantly are the super high end cards such as the ATI 57xx series and the Nvidia 285 and 295. But the 295 barely maxes out the x16 bandwidth at full load. l your different add on cards, such as a video card, a sound card, fan controllers, internet connectors, etc. Video cards are only made with the PCI Express connector now, so how many PCIe slots are on your board will determine if you only want to run a single card, dual SLI/Crossfire, Triple SLI/Xfire, or even Quad SLI/Xfire for ultra gaming capabilities.

D. Features & PCI slots - SATA ports, IDE ports, RAM slots, 3pin fan connectors, I/O back panel, all of these will influence your decision. SATA ports and IDE ports are the slots used to connect your hard drives and CD drives to the MB. SATA 2.0 is standard currently, but SATA 3.0 is just starting to be added to boards, and it is significantly faster data transportation. Getting a board with 2+ of these will be necessary in the near future, but at the moment will cause the price of the board to be slightly higher than a similarly equipped board. Same goes for the new USB 3.0 ports.

IDE is what was once used in place of SATA. It is pretty obsolete now, and should only be looked for if you have an old HDD with that connection.

RAM slots come in DDR2 and DDR3 currently. DDR5 is not far off, since it is currently used in Video Cards. DDR2 and DDR3 are not interchangeable, so it would be wise to figure out which one you need and stick with it. DDR2 is on its way out the door, so most of you will be looking at DDR3, which generally have higher speeds and greater capacity. 4 ram slots is standard on a board, but some high end boards have 6 or even 8 slots. 3 pin fan connectors are a nice addition and most board companies are adding at least 3, which leaves some room open on your Power Supply connectors.

Finally the back panel has all of your ports that you connect your onboard sound, USB, eSATA, SATA, Keyboard & Mouse, ethernet cable, etc. Which of these is on your board is entirely up to what your devices use.

5. Central Processing Unit (CPU)

This is the part of the PC which does all the operations. Again you must choose between AMD or Intel, and match that with your Motherboard slot. AM2+ and AM3 are the newest slot for AMD, and the 1366 socket (with the i7) is the newest for Intel. It would be wise to look into purchasing within those sockets, as the older AM2, 939, 775, and 1156 are all the older sockets which will soon be outdated, especially with the new 6+ core CPU's on their way to market as this is written. Once your brand and socket type are decide upon, core quantity and core speed are the two main factors to look at.

A. Cores - CPU's are available in single, dual, and quad cores currently. Dual cores are the standard right now, with Quad core CPU's starting to replace them. As stated earlier, Hexa core will be available by late 2010 to early 2011. And in the year 2012, 12 and 16 core processors will be available.

B. Speed - Faster is better. You can find CPU's sold with speeds up to 3.4Ghz. Although it should be noted that with overclocking, speeds of up 4.0+Ghz can be achieved, given the right skill and components.

Note: I will be covering how to overclock CPU's in a future article.

6. CPU Heat sink/Fan/water cooling solution

If you are reading this, most likely you are not a PC building veteran. So in that case, put water cooling out of mind right now. Sure water cooling has an awesome potential for working great, and cooling your system to new low temps so that you can overclock the system to new highs. But it also has just as much potential for having a difficult install, and more importantly, causing catastrophic failure of every single expensive part in your PC. If your water cooling solution develops even the slightest leak, you can kiss all your money goodbye. So I highly recommend waiting until you have completely finished your first PC build, then when you start an entirely new build, you can consider starting with CPU water cooling and working into full water cooling from there.

CPU heat sinks should be entirely avoided. Make sure you are purchasing a CPU heat sink andfan combo. Be wary of the "Rifle" style coolers because they are usually MASSIVE, and if you don't have a case greater than 9", you most likely won't be able to utilize a side fan on the case, or you might have other clearance issues. You will also need to check to make sure it clears any RAM you plan to use, and also the North-bridge cooler on your Motherboard (the largest heat sink built into the motherboard).

Things to look for when choosing a heat sink/fan combo:

A. Fan size - Plan on getting a heat sink with a minimum of a 92mm fan. Any smaller, and it will do nearly an identical job of cooling as the stock CPU cooler, and ends up being a waste of money. Also, if you go larger, you will be able to overclock your cpu more, while being able to bleed off more heat.

B. Heatsink Material - Gold, Silver, and Copper are some of the best conductors, but since this is a pc and not a Rolls Royce, you will only see Copper, Nickel, and Aluminum. Copper is ideal, with Nickel being virtually tied with Aluminum, and it depends on construction for their conductivity.

C. Heat Pipes - These are hollow metal rods that work their way through the heatsink fins in order to bleed off the heat into a greater surface area, fascilitating cooling. They are usually made of copper, but can be coated in nickel, made from nickel, or made from aluminum. Copper is ideal.

Additional Notes: Ideally, get a CPU Direct Contact cooler. This is where the heat pipes directly touch the top of the CPU when mounted. This maximizes the ability for heat to transfer into the heat pipes, and away from the CPU.

Also, look into getting a brand of high quality thermal paste. I use Tuniq TX-2 paste, which works incredibly for my application. But Arctic Silver is outstanding followed closely by Antec, Cooler Master, and Zalman pastes.

7. RAM Modules

Random Access Memory is what RAM stands for. These are used to temporarily store massive amounts of data, and can be accessed in any order. When looking at RAM, you will need to look at a few things:
RAM Type - DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and in the near future, DDR4 (2011-2012). Each of these has a different key slot on the RAM, so they are not interchangeable. (DDR4 hasn't been revealed yet, so compatability is questionable) Make sure your MB supports the correct RAM before purchasing.

Speed - 1066Mhz, 1200Mhz, 1333Mhz, 1600Mhz, etc. These are the rated speed that the RAM can operate at, but it is not limited to these particular speeds. All RAM can be slowed down to a certain extent, and most RAM can be overclocked to faster speeds. But you will need to match this speed up with your motherboard.

Example: The MSI 770-G45 MB is compatible with DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600(OC). This means that have to use a RAM with a minimum speed of 800, but anything greater will work. The MB will automatically detect the standard settings. In the case of Corsair DHX XMS3 1600, the MB detected it as a 1066 RAM at timings of 9-9-9-28-37. I had to adjust the RAM multiplier in the BIOS, RAM voltage settings, and also the timings to reach an optimal speed of 1333 with timings of 7-7-7-22-29. I will cover how I reached these settings in a future Overclocking Article.

8. Power Supply Unit (PSU)

This could be the most import part of your PC. The PSU is what delivers the power directly to your components. It is imperitive that you purchase a quality brand, high performance PSU. Many of the high quality brands will offer low end PSU's, so be wary.

Things to look for:

A. Wattage - This will NOT be the standard advertised maximum wattage. 500w, 600w, 700w, 1200w, etc. What you are looking for is the actual continuous maximum wattage which will almost always be lower, and an odd number (Example: 750w rated PSU, cont rated 744) Once again, the higher is better (aside from Amperage). Ideally you should look for a PSU with a maximum continuous wattage of double what you are planning to draw from the PSU. This will increase the life of the PSU, the stability and quality of power delivered, and the PSU will be significantly quieter.

B. Amperage - On the 12v rail to be specific. The best power supplies still use a single 12v rail. This is so that all the amperage is combined, and you don't have to worry about how much power is going to each component. Use the equation Wattage = Voltage x Amperage to determine if the power supply will work for your application. If the PSU does have multiple 12v rails, add those up. So these are approximations to what you will need for a PSU in a given system:

Mild -Average Performance system - 35A (400-500W) SIngle Nvidia 8800/9800 or ATI 4870 will do fine with this.

Average -High Performance system - 40A (600-650W) Nvidia 275, ATI 5870. Or low end SLI/Xfire.

High - Ultra High Performance system - 60A (850W+) High end 5890 Xfire/295 SLI

Note: These can vary a bit depending on how many HDD's, optical drives, CPU, and if you have components overclocked.

C. Modular vs Non-Modular - Cables disconnectable (modular) vs cables permanently attached (non-modular). Modular used to be less stable than non-modular, but advances in technology have brought modular up to par. This choice is mostly preference. Modular does offer the advantages of removing cables that you don't need, making the PC case cleaner, and less cluttered. The side effect of this is that removing excess cables allows air to flow better in the case, effectively cooling components more efficiently.

D. Connectors - Basically every main brand PSU (Antec, XFX, Silverstone, Rosewill, Thermaltake, Corsair, Apevia, Coolermaster, etc) above 450w has every cable you will ever need.

Cables to double check:

1. 24 pin power cable
2. 4+4 pin power cable
3. 6+2 pin cables for Video cards
4. 4 pin power periferals
5. SATA power connectors

E. 80 Plus Ratings - I would highly recommend a PSU with a minimum of an 80+ rating. This rating system is just a measurement of how efficient and stable the power is coming from the PSU to the MB. 80+ is will run at approximately 80% efficiency. Meaning that only 20% of the energy moving through the PSU is being disappated through heat. The levels of the ratings are 80+, 80+ Bronze, 80+ Silver, 80+ Gold, with each step up being approximately 5% more efficient.

9. Video Card

This is probably what most people are concerned about when playing video games, and rightfully so. The first thing you should choose between is if you want an ATI card or an Nvidia card. Both have their pluses and minuses, and they are always in a power struggle for who has the best, fastest, most powerful video card. As a generalization, Nvidia cards will be more expensive than an equal performance ATI card. At the time of this writing, Nvidia will be nearing their release of the new 300 series cards. This release will drop the prices significantly of all the current Mid-high to super-high end cards.

Things to look for when purchasing:

A. Connectors - Make sure that you have the correct power connection from your PSU. This is essential, as it won't turn on if you don't have the correct power. This could be a 6 pin connector, a 6+2 pin connector, or even a 6+2 pin with an additional 6 pin connector.

B. Size - This is very important as well, because if you can't fit the card in your case, you can't use it. Check clearances inside your case and match it with the length of the card. Also check how far your HDD's will stick out, and which direction the power supply cable will extend from the video card.

C. Performance - This pretty much comes down to what you can afford. The faster (Mhz), and higher the number (ATI 5890, Nvidia 295), the better.

D. Cooling - Most name brand video cards (XFX, HIS, ASUS, EVGA, Sapphire, MSI) come with quality cooling, but some off brands (Powercolor, Biostar, Sparkle, Zotac, BFG Tech) will come with cheap cooling that will inevitably fail.

10. Monitor

Pretty simple, the thing you look at.

Things to look for:

A. Connections - Does your video card have the HDMI, DVI, and/or VGA inputs? You'll need to match these up with your video card in order to, well, to see what's on the screen, obviously.

B. Screen Resolution - How big do you really want to go? How much detail do you want or need?

C. Type of screen - Do you want to go with the old Cathode Ray Tube monitor? Probably not. You will most likely be looking for either an LCD or an LED screen. The differences are minute, although LED is supposed to be more accurate, brighter color. Although LED screens are brand new technology, so they are quite a bit more expensive still.

11. Keyboard & Mouse

There are a lot of impressive gaming keyboards and mice out there. This is something nobody can really tell you what to pick. It all depends on what feels good to you, and how many buttons you need, and how many macros you want to set.

12. Speakers

What sounds good to you? It is kind of difficult to pick out a good sound system these days with so many cheap systems being produced. Generally the cheap ones are cheap for a reason.

Speakers will come in a whole slew of combinations from 2.0 to 4.1, to 6.0 to the ultimate in surround sound, the 8.1. For most gamers, a solid 2.1 setup will be sufficient. The first number stands for how many speakers are in the system, and the .1 is for the sub woofer.

Conclusion

There you go! A quick (or not so quick) rundown of everything you need to get started with building a gaming PC. Make sure you buy some compressed air to clean all the dust off your awesome new system!!! Good luck!!:thumbsup:

Feel free to post any questions, comments, concerns, or builds in this thread. That is what this is for.